Thumbtack, a Service Leads Provider, Raises $1.2 Million

Thumbtack, one of the new breed of service lead companies such as Alikelist, Redbeacon and HelpHive seeking to push aside leaders like ServiceMagic and Angie’s List (and the Yellow Pages), announced today it has raised $1.2 million, and now has raised a war chest of $1.7 million altogether. The new angel round includes 11 angels, including well-known Web leaders such as Jason Calacanis (Weblogs), Joshua Schachter (Delicious), Scott Banister (PayPal) and Ariel Poler (i/Pro).

Site founder Marco Zappacosta says the funding will be used to expand Thumbtack’s eight-person team, which is based in San Francisco. It will also be used to expand key features such as e-mail marketing, appointment management and its “Personal Concierge” service.

Zappacosta tells us that the site has evolved considerably from its earliest days. It is now focused on simple tasks such as invoicing, record management and appointment management. “Payment solutions are really hard to pull off,” he says.

The company remains wedded, however, to its core concept of providing “deeper, richer” background on service providers rather than relying on licensed lists. It now has profiles on 40,000 service professionals in 11 markets, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.