Last we heard from SavingStar, the paperless coupon and loyalty service for grocery stores, it had just raised $9 million in Series C financing from DCM, Flybridge, First Round, IA Ventures, Buddy Media Founder and CEO Michael Lazerow, among others.
Today, SavingStar is adding another $9 million to the bank, both from its existing investors and newcomers like corporate benefits provider… → Read More
Larky, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based startup focused on helping users take better advantage of discounts and benefits from various clubs or members-only organizations like AAA, AARP, as well as health insurance providers, credit card companies, and more, is today announcing a seed round of $650,000. The round, which officially closed in late 2012, was led by North Coast Technology Investors, and… → Read More
ShopSavvy, the mobile application best known for its barcode-scanning and price comparison features, is today moving into personalized deals, through a new relationship with Capital One. The app will now show Capital One deals to any of the app’s users, provided they first add their Capital One credit card to ShopSavvy’s mobile wallet. In addition to the discount the deal provides, users will also… → Read More
Having launched two years ago into an extremely crowded travel vertical, Hipmunk has carved out its own niche. The site was built out of the need for ease of travelling by its founders, and the company has done a lot of things right since then. Hipmunk has raised $20.2 million to date, and has recently launched a new Deals product, which allows people to find the best places to go based on the… → Read More
Y Combinator company Glassmap, a location-aware app that was big back in the day (last year), has just announced that is has been acquired by Groupon. A representative from Groupon has confirmed to TechCrunch that the company has indeed acquired Glassmap and is ”excited to bring the team aboard.” This makes total sense, because Groupon needs to know where you are, who you’re… → Read More
Bync, a new startup launching today, will sync with your bank and credit cards in order to provide you with more relevant deals, offers and coupons which are sent out via email. You can think of it as the daily deals email that you actually want to read. The company began its life as Budgetable, a more comprehensive personal finance suite similar to Mint.com, but with offers. However, following… → Read More
Google today launched the first deal in what will be a series of freebies and discounts on mobile apps, books, TV, music and movies, now being made available to Android users via Google Play. The “surprise calendar countdown,” as the giveaway program is being called, kicks off with a $35 credit for Hotel Tonight. → Read More
I would have posted this sooner but I just noticed that amazing indie game Braid and Bioshock 2 just ended up in the MacHeist bundle and popped over to the site to check it out. To my surprise, I found that they were also selling Scrivener – literally the best long-form writing app I’ve ever used – as well one year of Evernote Premium, a $60 value. In short, it’s some hot stuff. → Read More
Fresh off the heels of a $1.2 million round of funding, the furniture-focused e-commerce site Deal Décor is today announcing its official nationwide launch. The company, which we once referred to as a “Groupon for Furniture,” to be fair, isn’t really a rip-off of the Groupon business model. That is, it’s not about using group-buying to promote merchant coupons. Instead, it’s about using… → Read More
We last heard from Pirq when the company announced a nice deal with Apple to offer its employees a special app for discounts on food at restaurants near its offices in Cupertino — a relationship that just might develop into something further, according to sources at the time. Today, however, we have some more news about Pirq expanding other parts of its service. The company has picked up an extra… → Read More
In an effort to keep the kids from going with all Apple everything, Microsoft has teamed up with a number of vendors to offer a new “Buy a PC, Get An Xbox” plan along with a $15 upgrade to Windows 8 when it lands later this year. Non-gamers get a $100 Staples gift card, which sounds like cold comfort. → Read More
The daily deal model has seen better days, with the market shrinking and consolidating, and the market leader’s share price in the can. But one startup hopes that it differentiate its deal platform from the rest by offering consumers and merchants a deeper package that includes consumer-driven deals (CDDs), events and ticketing, while allowing people to give back to their favorite charities and… → Read More
Plum District, the mom-focused deals site backed by $30 million in funding from General Catalyst, KPCB and Comcast Ventures, is now available as a mobile app. The company is today launching its iPhone application which will allow users to browse offers on their phone, purchase them with one click and the redeem them at local and online stores. An Android version will soon follow.
The app’s… → Read More
Jason Langheier founded Zipongo in June 2011 to give families and parents an easier way to make healthier dietary choices by reducing the costs that so often get in the way. Through a web-based health community and iPhone app, Zipongo essentially combines the best of Mint.com and Groupon to create a service that gives users their own personalized wellness plans (and the ability to manage them)… → Read More
StyleSeat, the “OpenTable for hair stylists” backed by Founders Fund (via FF Angel), 500 Startups, Ashton Kutcher, and others (including a who’s who of angel investors), is today launching a service called “New Client Offers.” The platform allows salons to reach out to potential new clients by offering discounts or extra services redeemable upon their first visit. The offers will be available in… → Read More
Bloomspot, a local offers company launched back in 2010, is pulling back the proverbial kimono on its numbers in an effort to prove its business model works. Although sometimes lumped in with group deal providers like Groupon or Living Social, Bloomspot operates quite differently. Instead of group deals targeted at the masses, it offers exclusive deals targeted specifically at a merchant’s best… → Read More
A somewhat stealthy new startup called Gumhouse just raised over $6 million according to this SEC filing, and there are some big names attached to the project, it seems. According to the Gumhouse.com website, the service is described as a “social stream video shopping network,” which uses Facebook to personalize your shopping experience. After a little digging, it appears the service has already… → Read More
Cartera Commerce, the largest provider of card-linked offers in the U.S., has just raised an additional $12.2 million in Series D funding, bringing its total raise to date to $43 million. The new round was led by Comvest Group, and included participation from all Cartera’s previous investors: Dace Ventures, Flybridge Capital, LBO Enterprises and Venture Capital Development Fund of New… → Read More
Waxing for two at Take-It-Offs in Scranton? $100 worth of Polka lessons for 40 cents? An avant garde grilled cheese sandwich meal with metal shavings in it at Chez Naif for $60? You don’t want any of those daily deals, right? But they’re still coming.
Two people (lovers, really), Edwin Hermawan and Lea Pische, wanted to fight back. And they did. With UnsubscribeDeals.com.
“We stopped buying… → Read More
Decide.com, the shopping search site for consumer electronics and home appliances founded by former Farecast engineers, is now putting its money where its mouth is, so to speak. The service, which helps consumers know whether to “buy” or “wait” when researching items like laptops, phones, TVs, washers and dryers, wants to make it easier to trust its recommendations with the launch of a price… → Read More
We’ve written quite a bit about BiteHunter, a mobile app for iPhone that aggregates dining deals in the U.S., since it launched about a year ago. Now, the New York-based company has released version 2.0 of its app and this update makes a good app even better. BiteHunter 2.0 doesn’t just introduce a new, highly visual interface for discovering restaurants with available deals around you, but it… → Read More
Shopping discovery service Zoomingo, which helps you find nearby sales using your mobile phone, is out with a new iPhone app that introduces a gamification element to its platform. Local shoppers are now being encouraged to share the unreported sales they spot in the wild as well as rate those spotted by others.
By playing the new “Hot or Not” game within the app to rate deals, shoppers earn… → Read More
Today, Google is announcing a partnership with a NY-based company called Signpost, which will now run deals on the Google Offers website and in subscriber emails. Signpost, which has $1 million in seed funding from Google Ventures, Spark Capital and other angels, has been flying under the radar in the local deals space. The company recently tripled its employee base and now claims revenue has been… → Read More
When it comes to daily deals and loyalty programs, local merchants are constantly bombarded with new options. Groupon has leapt ahead in daily deals, and there quite a few players in the loyalty program space, all trying various approaches to mobile, to rewarding influencers, to encouraging social engagement, gamification, and more.
New York-based Social Passport is taking a different approach… → Read More
DealBoard, a recently launched iPhone app from Seattle and London-based nFluence Media, has just emerged as a new player in the crowded “daily deals” space. But this app isn’t yet another Groupon clone, it’s a daily deal aggregator. However, what makes dealBoard unique – and why the company has $3 million in funding – is how the app goes about aggregating those deals for you. Instead of just… → Read More
Seattle and London-based nFluence Media emerged from two years of stealth mode to announce it has raised $3 million for a deal-targeting technology whose first application will be a daily deal aggregating iPhone app, due out later this month. However, the company is not necessarily just another player in the overly crowded “daily deals” space. Instead, the technology being funded here is an… → Read More
Makerbot’s Thing-O-Matic is pretty pricey – $1,299 for the kit and $2,500 for the assembled kit – but (and this is my professional opinion) it is amazing and everyone in the world should own one. That said, Fab.com has a special deal on Thing-O-Matics this week – $999 for the kit and $2,000 for the assembled device – one of the first and biggest discounts ever on the entire system. → Read More
Toronto-based deal provider Dealfind is on the move, having recently gone mobile, and, as of today, is launching something called “Everyday Deals.” The feature is somewhat similar to GrouponNow in that it allows you to find deals you can buy and use right now. But really, the site is more of a deals database, where deals are searchable by location, category and redeemable time. → Read More
While some M&A deals turn out to be great successes, it’s no surprise that a lot of mergers and acquisitions fail. The obvious factors explaining the failures include culture clashes or founders leaving – taking the DNA with them in the process.
But M&A is more art than science, and the reasons why so many deals fail to deliver on their 1+1=3 promise are complex. Here are some: → Read More
Couponing has been around forever, but the popularity of digital offers, daily deals, and group buying is fairly new. We’ve gone through the honeymoon period, watched the meteoric rise of Groupon, its overvaluation, IPO — and thankfully, through it all, we’ve seen increasing scrutiny on the space, especially over just how profitable daily deals actually are for local businesses.
The debate… → Read More
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