Social CRM Startup Etacts Shutting Down

Etacts, one of many social CRM companies that pulls in profile information of people who are emailing you, is shutting down, according to an email sent out to its users. Etacts competes with the likes of Rapportive and Gist. Earlier this week I reported that Gist was in the process of being acquired by Research in Motion, the company behind BlackBerry devices. Many such social CRM companies were using data from Rapleaf, a San Francisco-based company that has been under scrutiny for its data collection and data sharing practices. Etacts, which was incubated by YCombinator had raised $ 650,000 from angel investors such as SV Angel earlier this year.

Here is the text of their email:

Dear Etacts user,

After almost a year of providing our free service to help you manage your relationships, we’re sorry to announce that we will be shutting down the Etacts service. Effective January 31, 2011, the service will cease to operate and your user data will be deleted. We recognize and appreciate the time and energy you’ve given us in using Etacts, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this will cause you.

Thank you for your support throughout our existence.

Evan and Howie
The Founders of Etacts

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