The Center for Innovative Technology today announced a $100,000 investment in YaSabe, Inc. of Herndon, VA, as part of a larger round of financing for the company. YaSabe is focused on local and mobile search for U.S. Hispanics, bringing unique content, technology and an experienced management team to the fastest growing segment of the US economy. Consumers access YaSabe on the Internet and mobile browsers, and through Android and iPhone applications.

There are 52 million Hispanics living in the United States, growing faster than any other segment of the population. In terms of worth and growth in spending, U.S. Hispanics rival some of the most dynamic emerging economies in the world, as these consumers will spend more than $1.3 trillion in 2012. Latinos living in the US are also the fastest growing group of Internet users, especially of the mobile Internet, where they over-index by 40% compared with non-Hispanics.

YaSabe.com offers bilingual information for over 14 million businesses across the United States, and highlights Hispanic culture, products and services that are most relevant to Hispanics. The high-quality and unique dataset developed and managed by the company lets users search from YaSabe.com, Google and Bing and on other partner websites where Hispanics go online. The company uses specialized technologies to crawl, curate and organize information from the web, constantly adding to and enhancing its repository of culturally-relevant content for U.S. Hispanics.

Key features for consumers include powerful bilingual search functionality, a local Q&A bulletin board service where users post questions and receive crowd-sourced answers and personalized recommendations, and a mobile notification services that helps users find and discover products, services and coupons. For local businesses, YaSabe offers simple and cost-effective subscription-based digital advertising products that deliver higher return on investment than most existing offerings in the marketplace.

CIT President and CEO Pete Jobse said, "YaSabe was built by proven, successful entrepreneurs to provide a solution for a fast-growing and burgeoning marketplace. The company exemplifies the newest generation of internet companies which provide significant growth and return on investment."

Zubair Talib, YaSabe's CEO and co-founder, said, "CIT GAP Funds was a great fit for YaSabe and helped us gain substantial exposure to prominent investors from around Virginia." Azim Tejani, YaSabe's EVP and co-founder, said "CIT GAP Funds is a perfect partner for us, and we will use this investment for product development and to secure additional strategic alliances and sales channels."

Tom Weithman, CIT Vice President and GAP Funds Managing Director, said, "CIT GAP Funds looks for entrepreneurs like Zubair Talib and Azim Tejani who are knowledgeable and can demonstrate momentum and a distinct competitive advantage in a sizable market opportunity. By providing seed capital to promising young companies and entrepreneurs and helping to fill the seed-stage funding gap, we are helping Virginia grow new companies and jobs that will shape our future economy."

Since its 2005 launch, CIT GAP Funds has placed over 70 investments across the Commonwealth, deploying greater than $6 million of public funds and attracting over $80 million more in private funding. (For a list of portfolio companies, please visit the GAP Funds website.)

Learn more about YaSabe, Inc. by visiting their website at http://www.yasabe.com, or by following them on Twitter and Facebook.

About the Center for Innovative Technology, http://www.cit.org
CIT is a nonprofit corporation that accelerates the next generation of technology and technology companies. CIT creates new technology companies through capital formation, market development and revenue generation services. To facilitate national innovation leadership and accelerate the rate of technology adoption, CIT creates partnerships between innovative technology startup companies and advanced technology consumers. Its CAGE code is 1UP71.

About the CIT GAP Funds, http://www.citgapfunds.org
CIT GAP Funds makes seed-stage equity investments in Virginia-based technology, clean tech and life science companies with a high potential for achieving rapid growth and generating significant economic return for entrepreneurs, co-investors and the Commonwealth of Virginia. CIT GAP Funds investments are overseen by the CIT GAP Funds Investment Advisory Board (IAB). This independent, third-party panel consists of leading regional entrepreneurs, angel and strategic investors, and venture capital firms such as: New Enterprise Associates, Grotech Ventures, Valhalla Partners, Harbert Venture Partners HIG Ventures, Edison Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Intersouth Partners, SJF Ventures, Carilion Clinic, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric and Alpha Natural Resources.

About YaSabe, http://www.yasabe.com
YaSabe.com is an online search engine to help Latinos in the US find and discover businesses, jobs, and other information locally. The company has a strong focus on Latin culture via a fully bilingual interface and deep local content such as Spanish-speaking businesses, Latin restaurants, food and clothing. The Q&A-style bulletin board service lets users post questions and receive crowd-sourced answers and personalized recommendations. YaSabe also offers a real-time activity feed and notification service that helps consumers stay connected to their communities, featuring new coupons, Latin events, user reviewed businesses and more. YaSabe already provides results for millions of queries from US Hispanics searching for products and services online at YaSabe.com and from Google, Bing and other websites like PaginasAmarillas.com and holaciudad.com where Hispanics go online. YaSabe offers local businesses and national brands simple and cost-effective ways to reach and influence Hispanic consumers who are searching online.