Tupalo announces strategic partnership and round of investment with Austria’s HEROLD Business Data

(SANEPR.com) June 10, 2009 -- Since 2007, Tupalo.com has provided Vienna locals with a community to discover the best local businesses in their neighborhood and around the World. And discover they have, with thousands of social reviewers writing hundreds of thousands of words describing their experiences at their favorite (and not so favorite) local restaurants, cafes, salons, bars, clubs and other businesses and services around Austria, Europe, North America and the World.

A quick peek at Tupalo.com’s Social Yellow Pages at immediately shows locals and travelers the most popular local businesses in their city, giving users an immediate view into the hottest spots in the hottest cities around the World, via traditional Yellow Pages content such as address, telephone number and website address, as well as user-generated content such as user reviews, ratings, favorites lists, photos, questions and answers, and many other experiences.

With HEROLD Business Data joining as a strategic investor, Tupalo.com will have access to HEROLD’s database of over 300,000 local businesses and services, giving Austrian-based social reviewers, urbanistas and foodies, known as Tupaleros, more local businesses to share their experiences about, and many more new shops, boutiques, cafes and more in their area to discover. Additional funding from the partnership will enable Tupalo.com to rapidly accelerate product and community development activities around Austria and Europe, together with Tupalo.com’s local partners, i5invest, a startup incubator with offices in New York, Vienna, Austria, and Salzburg, Austria.

"With Tupalo.com bringing HEROLD on board, our users will have access to loads of new business data and Information. The professionally edited HEROLD content complements the user-generated recommendations, ratings and reviews from our Tupaleros perfectly, "says Michael Borras, who together with partner Clemens Beer, are CEOs of Tupalo.com. "Since our users are very passionate about their favorite local businesses and services, our user-generated content will add a valuable addition to the hundreds of thousands of new business listings data HEROLD provides us. " Clemens Beer adds.



"Tupalo.com took the concept of Yellow Pages, which we at HEROLD brought to Austria, and successfully developed and led it into the "Web 2.0" era. The Social Yellow Pages community Tupalo.com has created matches perfectly with our business. Both companies will benefit from this deal" says Managing Director of HEROLD, Thomas Friess.

In addition to HEROLD as a strategic investor, Tupalo.com has received private funding from startup incubator i5invest, who have provided business development and market guidance to Tupalo.com since late 2008. "Tupalo.com complements our project portfolio perfectly. The Tupaleros developed an extremely good product, which we will support with our network, our expertise in financing, marketing and in Market Approach," says Markus Wagner, founder of i5invest.

About Tupalo.com
Tupalo.com is a Social Yellow Pages community for locals and travelers alike. Reviewers and users are able to discover, rate and review local businesses and services in their neighborhood and around the World. By sharing their experiences with local bars, restaurants, cafes, salons, boutiques, hotels, services and more, Tupaleros are creating intimate and first-hand looks at the hottest spots, in the hottest cities in Austria and around the World.

Tupalo.com is available in English and German and was founded and bootstrapped in 2007 by an Austrian / American team led by Clemens Beer and Michael Borras. Tupalo.com is based in Vienna, Austria, where they are trying to visit every Viennese Cafe for a hot cup of coffee and apple strudel at least once - .

About i5invest
i5invest GmbH, with offices in New York, Vienna and Salzburg, is a business incubator and angel investor for internet startups. With a team of internationally experienced entrepreneurs and a network spanning New York, the Silicon Valley and Europe, i5invest acts as an incubator for the online business models of tomorrow.

About HEROLD Business Data
HEROLD Business Data provides a platform for consumers and businesses in Austria to find relevant data on companies, products, brands and services, in addition to Yellow Pages data, such as phone numbers and addresses.

HEROLD’s core business is the publication of Austria’s telephone and Yellow Pages print editions, in addition to online and mobile directories. In addition HEROLD offers other lead generation services, from direct marketing, to data, to search engine marketing.