The Chainsmokers, Paris Hilton pile into $23 million Series A for expat Australian online shopping startup

Paris Hilton and electronica duo The Chainsmokers have been added to the A-lister cap table of LA-based expat Australian startup Checkmate, which has raised US$15 million (A$23m) in a Series A.

The round was led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), with support from DJ duo Alex Pall and Drew Taggart’s VC fund Mantis, plus several other US funds, including Common Metal, BDuck Capital, Black Angels Group and F7 Ventures, plus Trevor Neff from Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures. Back home, existing investor Blackbird, plus the cofounders of Sendle and LinkTree. Checkmate’s backers already include NFL star Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures.

Other investors include Fuel Capital, Kevin Johnson, the former CEO of Ebates at Rakuten, Ancestry CEO Deborah Liu, Firstbase CEO Chris Herd, XMTP cofounder Shane Mac, f7 Ventures, Scribble Ventures, Hyper, Susa Ventures, Wischoff Ventures, Exits Capital and Night Capital, many of whom contributed to the Series A.

Checkmate is online shopping tool for users to discover brands, apply savings and manage orders post-purchase. It works as a mobile app and PC Chrome extension to collate the best deals from a user’s personal email and web, then automatically apply them at a user’s online checkout.

It’s just nine months since the startup, cofounded by three Australians, banked US$5 million (A$7.75m) in a Seed round last September.

Checkmate’s dashboard also stores and manages gift cards and tracks orders for customers. Users can also opt for Checkmate to generate a first-of-its-kind “ghost email inbox” that signs them up to the top 100 retail and brand mailing lists for deals without having to wade through offers personally. The platform then automatically applies any relevant deals from the inbox for users while they shop.

The smartphone plugin topped downloads in the Apple App Store late last year and now has more than 400,000 users, including 60,000 daily active users. More than 2000 users have tried the Checkmate app, giving in a 4.5 star rating.