Ventro Corp. (Nasdaq: VNTR) added 1/4 to 2 11/16 Monday after MarketMile, a venture jointly owned by the business-to-business (B2B) company and American Express (NYSE: AXP), secured a US$16 million funding agreement.
Mountain View, California-based MarketMile said it is getting the money from eVolution Global Partners, which brings the total cash investment in the company to $46 million.
MarketMile is preparing to launch its B2B marketplace in the first quarter
of next year. The venture aims to help companies buy and
sell office 
and industrial supplies, including computers and peripherals, as
well as business services 
like temporary labor.
MarketMile represents American Express' first independent e-commerce startup. When American Express and Ventro first announced the MarketMile venture in August, American Express said it would assume a 65 percent ownership stake in MarketMile, while Ventro would own 35 percent. The two also said that MarketMile will use technology and software from Ariba, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA) to power its B2B Web sites.
According to David Sanderson, managing director for eVolution
Global Partners' U.S. operations, MarketMile will combine
the strength of the American Express brand and the quality of
Ventro's e-marketplace services .
The MarketMile investment is the first U.S. venture since eVolution's launch last spring. The London, England-based company has offices in San Francisco, California; Munich, Germany; Tokyo, Japan; and Hong Kong.
American Express ended Monday at 53, unchanged.
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