On the heels of Gilt Groupe’s $35 million round last week, Brazilian private sales site Brandsclub has raised $17 million in funding from South African media conglomerate Naspers and European fund Trayas. Naspers put in the bulk of the funding, investing $15 million in the e-commerce company.

Founded in March 2009, BrandsClub has been riding the flash sale site wave. The site now has over 1.1 million users in Brazil and is also operating in Mexico. The funding will be used to fuel growth and expansion in other areas of Latin America. The online private sample sale was originally brought to market in Europe by Vente-Privee in 2001 and since US companies like Gilt have been able to capitalize on the model’s considerable success.

According to a release, Naspers is using the investment to build out its presence in Brazil. Naspers has previously invested in Brazilian tech companies Grupo Abril, Movile and Buscapé. You may remember Naspers as a potential buyer of AOL’s ICQ (which was eventually acquired by Russian form DST).

Crunchbase

• BRANDSCLUB

Company: Brandsclub

Website: brandsclub.com.br

Launch Date: March 5, 2009

Funding: $17M

brandsclub is a private internet sales club.

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