Twenty Nashville investors, one of whom is former Nashville Scene Editor Bruce Dobie, have invested $1.7 million in Jinti.com, an online social-networking venture in the People's Republic of China.
The Nashville contingent provided all but $125,000 of Jinti.com's first round, according to Crom Carmichael, an investor in the business and the person who introduced most of the other Nashville investors to the deal. The smaller amount was recruited from a handful of East Coast investors.
Carmichaell told NashvillePost.com Jinti has thus far "focused our energies on driving traffic" to create a large-scale audience that would be attractive to advertisers. He said the year-old LLC venture now serves about 15 million unique visitors per month and provides content for 80 cities that have populations of 1 million to 30 million or more. Shanghai is the primary testbed for the business. With respect to total audience, "we've got lots to work with," Carmichael said with obvious satisfaction.
Carmichael likened Jinti.com to the U.S. phenomenon, Craigslist.com. Jinti provides social, employment, Internet phone service, entertainment and dating connections, and offers a marketplace for goods and services, customizable to individual cities.
He described Jinti as having "a small amount of revenue" at this stage. He explained that with the website's strong traffic, Jinti.com is turning its attention to developing and mining its rapidly expanding data warehouse. And, it is trotting out services for advertisers who seek a more creative environment than is typically found among Chinese radio, television and newspapers.
Carmichael said he first learned of Jinti.com about two years ago via Mike Hassell, who is executive vice president-finance for Nashville-based ConduIT. Hassell told Carmichael about Jinti.com after hearing Jinti Founder Jin Zhao's presentation to prospective investors in New York City. Carmichael then teamed with Ben Gray, a former Massey Burch Capital Corp. executive, to create investment-solicitation documents and convene angel meetings. The only Nashville investors who have been identififed are Carmichael, Gray and Dobie, who is founder of Dobie Media LLC.
Carmichael is no stranger to business in China. He is an angel investor and CEO for West End Ave.-based Nashai Biotech. Nashai markets its Teaflavin nutritional supplement through U.S. and China retailers and multi-level marketers, including AmWay. Teaflavin is sold as a cholesterol-lowering supplement for those who may not require drugs such as Pfizer Inc.'s Lipitor.
Earlier this month, Gov. Phil Bredesen announced Tennessee will establish a trade office in Beijing. Tennessee exports about $1.8 billion in goods to China each year. Overall, the annual U.S. trade deficit with China is about $235 billion.
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