Minted.com offers online marketplace for stationery

Online stationery marketplace Minted.com has launched, bringing independent designers together in a one stop shop of beautiful stationery. Minted.com prints community sourced designs on high-end invitations, announcements, holiday cards, and other social stationery.

I’ll be the first to admit that Stationery doesn’t exactly sound like an exciting vertical, however Minted.com comes with some impressive backing. Founder Mariam Naficy was the co-founder of Eve.com and a former executive at The Body Shop, and the company raised angel funding from Ben Elowitz, Founder and CEO of WetPaint and co-Founder of Blue Nile, Nirav Tolia, co-Founder and former CEO of Epinions, Toby Lenk, Founder of eToys and President of Gap, Inc. Direct, and Frank Han, former CEO of Glimpse.com. Adrian Bellamy, Chairman of The Body Shop International, and Josh Hannah, co-Founder and Director of Flutter.com and former CEO of eHow.com, also invested in the company and sit on Minted.com’s Board of Directors.

Minted.com currently features the top 17 independent stationery brands from across the US, and holds design competitions to identify new talent. The Minted.com community picks winners to be sold on the site, and the best designers are commissioned to create future works.

OK, so I’m still not excited by Stationery…in fact I don’t recall the last time I purchased a ream of paper, let alone something that could be classed in this category, but there is one word for what Minted.com is offering: gorgeous. Think Moo cards but fancier, stationery that is works of art. If you like fancy paper, you’ll love Minted.com.