Group purchasing giant Groupon has stuck its foot in the Russian door by acquiring Darberry.ru, a web portal offering similar services. The acquisition comes in the form of venture funding which gives Groupon a majority stake.
Groupon has been buying up discount shopping services around the world, including the recent acquisition of Germany’s CityDeal. At the same time the company announced the Darberry deal, it also entered Japan with an investment in Qpod.
Darberrry.ru (www.darberry.ru)
Darberry.ru is an online group shopping portal operating in seven Russian cities. The site went live in March of this year, thanks in part to funding from co-investors AddVenture and eVenture Capital Partners.
Darberry.ru boasts some 180,000 regular users, along with more than 26,000 uniques visitors per day. The site claims to have saved users almost half-a-million U.S. dollars since March.
Groupon (www.groupon.com)
Groupon was launched in 2008 as a project of The Point, a Chicago based online community. Groupon is an online purchasing platform based on the collective-buying model which guarantees sellers a minimum number of transactions. The company name is derived from the practice of offering a targeted special “coupon” deal in each city where it operates. These targeted deals include consumer goods and services from spas, restaurants, entertainment venues, and more.
The site operates internationally in 150 cities, and continues to expand through acquisitions. Groupon claims savings of more than USD $300 million for its registered users since the service was first launched.
August 26, 2010
Central & Eastern Europe, Investment, Private Equity News, Russia