WhaleShark Media, an online coupon rollup play, launched in June 2010. It was primarily funded by Austin Ventures, which has strong experience in the home rental market with HomeAway. The general idea for WhaleShark was to copy the HomeAway model.
The company just raised a monster round of financing – some $90 million – from Austin Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners and Adam Street Partners. And they spent most or all of that round buying the largest online coupon startup on the market, Australia’s RetailMeNot. Brian Sharples, the founder and CEO of HomeAway, is also an investor in WhaleShark.
That may seem like a lot of money to pay for a coupon site. But RetailMeNot will generate about $30 million in 2010 revenue, we hear, and is growing rapidly. The best part of their model is that almost all of their revenue is profit. They get traffic from search engines, not paid ads, and just five employees are needed to run the site. By any reasonable valuation methodology WhaleShark got quite a deal it seems.
About 14 million people visit RetailMeNot each month, say cofounders Guy King and Bevan Clark. It’s just four years old.
The company sits firmly in the hot “deal” space dominated by Groupon right now. Traditionally ecommerce sites get traffic via SEO, email, coupons/deals and paid ads. After SEO and email, affiliate type deals/coupons are the most profitable way to get new customers, says WhaleShark.
WhaleShark is lead by CEO Cotter Cuningham. Austin Ventures partner Tom Ball, who sits on the WhaleShark board, has deep coupon experience as well – he founded eCoupons in the 90s and sold it to Lifeminders.
WhaleShark has previously acquired Deals2Buy, Coupon7, Cheapstingybargains and Deals.com.
RetailMeNot, Inc. (www.retailmenot.com/corp) is the world’s leading marketplace for online coupons and deals. The company’s websites enable consumers across the globe seeking to save money to find hundreds of thousands of offers from retailers. RetailMeNot, Inc. experienced more than 450 million consumer visits to its sites in 2012. The RetailMeNot, Inc., portfolio of coupon and deal websites includes http://www.RetailMeNot.com, the leading online coupon site in the United States; http://www.VoucherCodes.co.uk, the leading online coupon site in the United Kingdom; http://www.Deals.com...
RetailMeNot.com provides a search portal at which users can find coupon and promotional codes for eCommerce sites such as Overstock.com, BestBuy.com, 6pm.com, Amazon.com, Kohl’s stores with online shopping capabilities. Currently RetailMeNot.com is owned by WhaleShark Media.
Austin Ventures (“AV”) has worked with talented entrepreneurs to build valuable companies for over 25 years. With $3.9 billion under management, AV is the most active venture capital and growth equity firm in Texas and one of the most established in the nation. With an investment focus on business services and supply chain, financial services, new media, Internet, and information services, AV invests at all stages of company development, from $100,000 in “planned experiments” in early-stage ideas to $100+...
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a multi-stage investment firm that has partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 50 years. The firm manages over $3.7 billion in capital and has funded more than 500 companies since inception. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., NVP has subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bengaluru, India and Herzelia, Israel. NVP makes early to late-stage venture and growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors including: technology, information services, business services, financial...
Adams Street Partners is a private equity investor that has been investing since 1972. They currently have over $20 Billion under management. Adams Street is a global fund of funds investor which invests in US-only, non-US developed & emerging markets. The firm annually commits over $1 billion to general partners in venture capital, private equity, buyouts, distressed, mezzanine and special situations. The firm also invests in the private equity secondary market. Adams Street’s Direct Investment team makes $5...
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