Group Commerce Announces $10 Million in Series B Funding
- Created on Friday, 13 May 2011 00:00
Growing Opportunities for Publishers in Daily Deal Market Prompts Added Investment
Group Commerce Inc., a full-service group buying and social commerce
platform, today announced a second round of funding to support its rapid growth in the fast-expanding $4 billion group buying market. Spark Capital and Carmel Ventures participated in the second round of funding, totaling $10 million, and building upon the investors’ funding of $8 million earlier this year.
“Since our launch, Group Commerce has increased its work on behalf of current customers, and
received significant interest from additional publishers looking to enter this market,” said Jonty Kelt, CEO of Group Commerce. “In order to scale to meet that demand, we have accelerated our growth by undertaking a round of secondary funding. This new infusion will allow us to aggressively build out our technology and services capacity in the coming months.”
A white-label platform, Group Commerce allows publishers and media companies to directly participate in the world of social commerce, rather than through an affiliate deal with a B2C group-buying service.
By creating their own deal programs, publishers can leverage their deep relationships with their
audiences to curate deals – better meeting the needs of local merchants looking for tangible ways
to drive sales and increase awareness. By running deals with publishers whose readers fit into the merchant’s target demographic, the likelihood of return customers – and lifetime value - is significantly
higher.
“We are thrilled at the opportunity to deepen our relationship with Group Commerce,” said Todd
Dagres, General Partner of Spark Capital. “They have experienced considerable growth over the course of the last few months, and we believe they are well-situated to continue this trajectory as the social commerce industry matures.”
Founded by former Google and DoubleClick executives David Rosenblatt, Jonty Kelt, and Andrew
Glenn, Group Commerce is already powering deal programs for numerous top publishers, including DailyCandy, Meredith Corporation, The New York Times, and Thrillist. Following deployment, clients are experiencing significant benefits, including high engagement and conversion rates, an increase in new registered users, and a larger share of financial returns.
ABOUT GROUP COMMERCE
Group Commerce Inc. is a white-label, full-service group buying platform built for the unique
needs of publishers and merchants. Founded in 2010, its social commerce technology is already
in use by several of the industry’s most respected brands. Backed by leading venture capital
firms and other top investors, the Company is based in New York (City). For more information,
visit www.groupcommerce.com
