Universe, a startup that offers a mobile-based website builder, has received $10 million in Series A funding from Google Ventures.
The company started as a mobile-first landing page builder to help digital natives build a short and quick website which can be added to their profile on social media sites. Its modular web site builder allows users to use drag-and-drop block to add images, videos and content to create a mobile-first website within minutes.
The platform has now matured “from a landing page builder to a full-fledged website builder”. It now offers a robust modular site builder with various customization options. There is an e-commerce solution as well available to individuals as well as very small business owners who like to showcase and sell their products and services online.
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According to its CEO, Joseph Cohen, Universe wants to focus on the “people who don’t work at desks.” These can be an artist selling prints, a yoga instructor charging for Zoom classes or one of their latest customers, a farmer selling live bait, reports TechCrunch.
With its mobile-first approach, Universe is aiming to take on the market leaders like Shopify which focuses primarily on desktop websites. As per Cohen, Shopify is “complex and not mobile-first” while Universe is a simple and user-friendly platform, making website creation easy for non-tech-savvy people.
Currently available only on iOS-powered mobile devices, Universe does not charge a commission out of the first $1000 of revenue. However, it plans to deduct 10% share once the free phase is over.
Since the commission charged by Universe is higher than most of its competitions, it may impact its target user base who are mostly individuals. The company, according to Cohen, is working on a couple of other revenue options like offering multiple tiers such as a free and a paid premium tier with additional benefits like analytics and more.
Via: TechCrunch
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