Shopping startup Retailigence stocks up with DFJ and Dave McClure

Shopping startup Retailigence says it’s creating a “bridge” connecting real-world “brick-and-mortar” stores with mobile and web applications. Now the Palo Alto, Calif. company has enlisted some well-known investors to fund its efforts: Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Dave McClure’s 500 Startups fund.

Retailigence takes inventory data from both sophisticated software (like that offered by SAP and NetSuite) and basic spreadsheets, then makes the information available through an application programming interface (API) to developers of location-based apps, shopping apps, and so on. So if a location check-in app is trying to lure you to a nearby store with the promise of a hot new product, it can use Retailigence to track whether that product is actually in stock.

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In addition to DFJ and 500 Startups, ZIG Capital, Global Brain Corporation, and various angel investors participated in Retailigence’s $1.5 million seed round. The company was incubated at the Founder Institute.

Another hot startup called Milo.com offers shoppers a way to see what’s in stock on the shelves of nearby stores. It sounds like Retailigence isn’t trying to compete directly with Milo, but rather to provide the data for similar applications.

[image via Flickr/Fen Branklin]