DigitalBeat

eSwarm has raised $1 million from a variety of angels, the company said today. The company describes its business as a web site that lets users group together to buy items at volume discounts.

[Update, September, 2009: eSwarm.com relaunched on August 9, 2009, and it is not a volume-discount based website anymore. Now  eSwarm.com is a social network focused on facilitating relevant conversations.  It is a simple, topic centric social networking site where you can see what your friends have to say about meaningful issues.]

They’ve been trying it out and reported earlier that the biggest “swarm” of users they’ve had was for a volume purchase of ammunition. (Now a swarm for refinancing credit card debt at lower interest rates has exceeded that). The Boulder, Colo.-based company says the model is an e-commerce version of real-world bulk-buying clubs.

Earlier, eSwarm described its business as follows: Buyers register for a free account and join swarms of buyers or create new ones. Swarms can be built around any consumer goods or services. Sellers then bid to get the business. Once a seller makes a bid to a swarm, the membership in the swarm is frozen and other sellers have 48 hours to bid. But the company says it will revise the model by the time it launches.

The company’s new chief executive is John Temte. The company was formed to get volume discounts for healthcare insurance for large groups of people. It said in a release in August that it would allow people to use the site to refinance credit card debt. The company says it is in private beta now and will be launching its public beta soon.

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