Earth Class Mail secures $13.3 million, plans New York store

Earth Class Mail, which enables people to manage snail mail online, has closed $13.3 million in Series A funding.

The round was led by Ignition Partners of Bellevue, Wash., with more than half of the money raised by the Keiretsu Forum angel investment group.

The company aims to open a chain of retail stores, starting with one in Manhattan early this year, according to the Portland Business Journal. The storefronts will focus on easing the process of signing up, which requires completing some notarized forms. The Seattle-based service is used currently in 130 countries.

Earth Class Mail is billed as an efficient, eco-friendly alternative to a post office box and ideal for on-the-go workers. For between $10 to $64 per month, customers have their mail sent to the company rather than a personal address.

Letter openers on the 70-person staff are disabled veterans with Department of Defense security clearance. They scan the envelopes and upload the images to the Web. Customers view the mail online and decide which items to have opened and read, recycled, or forwarded.

Earth Class Mail's users recycle 90 percent of mail received, but only 20 percent of mail delivered to someone's door gets recycled, according to the company.

[lizmontgom]

I think that Earth Class Mail sounds like it could be really helpful in keeping the USPS running strong and that it is an interesting concept. Definitely worth a try, especially if you are a frequent traveler or trying to find a new way to be more environmentally friendly. I came across the website www.zooppa.com and saw that they are holding a competition to promote their company. ECM is working with a new user-generated social advertising firm Zooppa where anyone can create a video ad. The winner gets prize money and recognition for their work. Anyway, thought it was a cool idea and I saw this article about ECM so thought I'd let people know about it!

[jgombos]

Earth Class Mail is a scam. Use paperlessmail.com instead.

Here's how ECM swindles people: you sign up for a contract term. The term begins the instant you sign up - not when the account is usable. The account is not usable until after you go get some forms notarized, and snail mail them to their Oregon office. They state right in the lengthy user agreement that they will in fact return to sender any mail they receive before the notarized forms are received. If you ask them to honor their 1 year contractual obligation from the date the account becomes usable, they refuse. If you tell them to honor the contract, or cancel it, they will terminate the account -- AND THEY WILL KEEP THE SETUP FEE (claiming that it's non-refundable per their "money-back guarantee")