Tupalo partners with CityGrid Media to expand to the U.S., goes up against Yelp

Vienna-based social yellow pages startup Tupalo (a European competitor to Qype) has launched in the U.S. in partnership with CityGrid Media, a local media company “connecting the millions of businesses and customers on the web.”

As a result, Tupalo now offers over 1 million business listings across the U.S., adding tens of thousands more on a daily basis. This, of course, also pits the startup against the major local (and International) player Yelp.

The U.S. is part of Tupalo’s plans to expand beyond its European base, although it’s also being played up as a sort of homecoming for the company and co-founder and CEO Mike Borras, who was born in America but now resides in Vienna, Austria.

Borras comments: “The US is a key market for local search, so we are partnering with flagship companies such as CityGrid Media that share our core values and vision. Tupalo.com is committed to an organic, all-inclusive approach, and we look forward to forging positive relationships with users, consumers, businesses and other partners throughout the USA.”

Tupalo recently raised an undisclosed second round from Austria’s leading yellow pages publisher Herold.at, at the same time announcing its iPhone app.