We’ve just gotten word that that Google plans on acquiring digital loyalty card service Punchd. The team, which consists of developers Reed Morse, Xander Pollock and Niket Desai (and formerly Grantland Chew), will most likely still be working on Punchd within Google according to our source. While our original source pegged the deal at a low seven figures, a second source pegged the acquisition price at more than $10 million.
Punchd, which is basically the digital equivalent of the “Buy 10 Get One Free Card” offered by coffee shops and supermarkets, is part of Dave McClure’s first 500 Startups brood. The acquisition makes complete sense for Google considering how much the NFC and deals space is heating up and the recent Google Wallet announcement. → Read More
It was a pretty exciting at 500 Startups Demo Day part deux today, namely because the accelerator had two sessions — one at 10am and a later one at 5pm, both drawing in a lot of startup mentor and investor attendance.
For those of you have not yet visited the 500 Startups office in Mountain View, the view is impeccable and the layout and interior design is extremely well thought out. For example a Spock painting by Twitter Fail Whale artist Yi Ying Lu adorned the wall of the conference room where I spent all day talking to startups. → Read More
