Tapingo, a provider of a mobile commerce platform enabling students to use their phone to order and pay for food and goods at merchants on and around college campuses, today announced that it has secured its first institutional financing round from Carmel Ventures. Carmel has invested $3.5 million and Shlomo Dovrat, Co-Founder and General Partner of Carmel Ventures, has joined the Company's board of directors.

"The funding will help accelerate our sales and marketing as we seek to make Tapingo the mobile ordering service of choice on college and university campuses throughout the United States," said Daniel Almog, CEO of Tapingo. "At the same time, Shlomo Dovrat is becoming a key player on our board. His experience and insight will be invaluable to Tapingo's growth."

Tapingo presents students with a real-time view of merchant inventories, providing a personalized and efficient shopping and food ordering experience with multiple payment options, including credit cards, PayPal, and campus cards. By integrating into the merchant's existing workflow, Tapingo delivers a targeted and expedited service for on-the-go consumers while improving operational efficiency for merchants.

Shlomo Dovrat of Carmel Ventures said, "Tapingo's solution integrates mobile ordering with physical commerce creating an ultimate mobile shopping platform. We are pleased to join Tapingo's talented team in transforming the huge market of mobile commerce, starting where it's required most immediately -- closed commerce environments such as college campuses."

Tapingo is commercially available on a number of college campuses in the US and plans to expand significantly in the fall of 2012.

"Students don't just want services to help them save time, they expect them," said Almog. "While we have seen great traction already, we are constantly optimizing and personalizing the service to keep pace with those rising expectations."

About Tapingo
Tapingo is a mobile shopping service which allows consumers on-the-go to use their phones to buy food, goods and services directly from physical merchants. Tapingo is based in San Francisco with an R&D center in Tel Aviv, Israel. For more information on Tapingo, please visit www.tapingo.com

About Carmel Ventures
With over $600 million currently under management, several successful exits, and a growing portfolio of promising start-ups, Carmel is among Israel's top-tier venture capital funds. Carmel's investments are focused primarily on early stage companies in the fields of Software, Internet, Digital Media, Communications, Semiconductors, and Consumer Electronics. Founded in 2000 by pioneers and leaders of the Israeli high tech industry, Carmel provides significant capital and active, hands-on support through the growth cycle of its portfolio companies and is recognized as a true company building fund in Israel. Carmel, headquartered in Herzliya, Israel enjoys a worldwide network of industry, strategic and investment resources.

Carmel is an affiliate of the Viola Group, the largest technology focused Private Equity group in Israel with $2B under management. For more information, please visit www.carmelventures.com.