January 9, 2008 10:12 AM PST

Earth Class Mail secures $13.3 million, plans New York store

Earth Class Mail, which enables people to manage snail mail online, has closed $13.3 million in Series A funding.

The round was led by Ignition Partners of Bellevue, Wash., with more than half of the money raised by the Keiretsu Forum angel investment group.

The company aims to open a chain of retail stores, starting with one in Manhattan early this year, according to the Portland Business Journal. The storefronts will focus on easing the process of signing up, which requires completing some notarized forms. The Seattle-based service is used currently in 130 countries.

Earth Class Mail is billed as an efficient, eco-friendly alternative to a post office box and ideal for on-the-go workers. For between $10 to $64 per month, customers have their mail sent to the company rather than a personal address.

Letter openers on the 70-person staff are disabled veterans with Department of Defense security clearance. They scan the envelopes and upload the images to the Web. Customers view the mail online and decide which items to have opened and read, recycled, or forwarded.

Earth Class Mail's users recycle 90 percent of mail received, but only 20 percent of mail delivered to someone's door gets recycled, according to the company.

Recent posts from Green Tech
Biofuel gets lift from Honeywell, Airbus, JetBlue
FloDesign's jet engine-inspired wind turbine wins prizes
Is ethanol lowering prices at the pump for consumers?
Fisker Automotive files legal counterattack in Tesla suit
Green IT at the plant: Web app remotely tracks energy usage
Powered by Jive Software
advertisement
  • About Green Tech

  • Innovation in energy and environmental technologies is long overdue. But it's here now--and growing fast. Touching on everything from water to wind turbines, CNET News.com's Martin LaMonica and other CNET writers serve up fresh green tech news and commentary.

Add this feed to your online news reader
Google
Yahoo
MSN

Most popular stories

  1. CBS to buy CNET Networks

  2. Images: Microsoft telescope puts universe on your desktop

  3. Intel Germany executive reportedly confirms Atom-based iPhone

  4. Xbox 360 hits 10 million sold in U.S.

  5. Photos: Microsoft previews 2008 Xbox games

Latest tech news headlines

Featured blogs

Beyond Binary by Ina Fried

Coop's Corner by Charles Cooper

Defense in Depth by Robert Vamosi

Geek Gestalt by Daniel Terdiman

One More Thing by Tom Krazit

Outside the Lines by Dan Farber

The Iconoclast by Declan McCullagh

The Social by Caroline McCarthy

Underexposed by Stephen Shankland

Resource center from News.com sponsors

advertisement
On TechRepublic: 5 tech skills that are on their way out
Advanced
search
Advanced
search
Visit other CNET Networks sites: