Internet: Groupon Completes $950 million Round of Financing

By Business Desk; published on January 11, 2011 at 11:17 am

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Groupon, the international local deals website, has raised $950 million in financing from a raft of investors.

The financing consists of several venture capital firms and late-stage investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, DST, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Maverick Capital, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures.

Allen & Company LLC acted as financial advisor. Previous funding rounds were led by New Enterprise Associates, Accel Partners, Mail.ru Group and DST.

In 2010, Groupon:

• Expanded from 1 to 35 countries
• Launched in almost 500 new markets (from 30 markets in 2009)
• Grew subscribers by 2,500% from 2 million to over 50 million
• Saved consumers over $1.5 billion
• Worked with 58,000 local businesses, serving over 100,000 deals worldwide

Andrew Mason, founder and CEO of Groupon said:

“We’re thrilled that Groupon has earned the confidence of some of the world’s most respected investment firms. With their support, we will continue on our mission to change the way people shop locally and serve the world’s local businesses.”

Groupon, launched in November 2008 in Chicago, uses collective buying power to get the best deal for consumers. A pre-determined number of buyers must agree to purchase the deal before it is activated – allowing business to offer bulk deals to individuals.

The latest round of funding was leveraged on an alleged offering from Google of $6 billion. The rumoured deal sparked great interest in the online deals and coupons market, allowing Groupon to tap its investors for more funds.

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Posted by Business Desk on January 11, 2011. Filed under Internet,Venture Capital. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

News Tags: Accel Partners, Allen & Company LLC, Andreessen Horowitz, Andrew Mason, Battery Ventures, DST, Financing, Google, Greylock Partners, Groupon, Investors, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mail.ru Group, Maverick Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Silver Lake, Technology Crossover Ventures.

About Business Desk

Editors and staff from the Business Desk at The Global Herald.

Website: http://theglobalherald.com/section/business/