The rumors were true – online coupon company Groupon has managed to raise just under a billion dollars, dwarfing recent rounds by both Facebook and Twitter, both of which were nothing to sneeze at.
TechCrunch got a hold of Groupon’s press release, titled “Groupon Raises, Like, A Billion Dollars”, which was set to hit the wires today and explains just how quickly the company has grown over the last year.
According to the company, the funding comes from a laundry list of venture capital firms and late-stage investors, “including Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mail.ru Group, Maverick Capital, Silver Lake, and Technology Crossover Ventures. Allen & Company LLC acted as financial advisor.”
Even more interesting, however, are the stats that come with the release, showing the companies explosive growth in 2010:
In the last year, Groupon has been called “the fastest growing company ever” by Forbes Magazine and “America’s best website” by one of Groupon’s television commercials. In 2010, Groupon:
Expanded from 1 to 35 countries
Launched in almost 500 new markets (from 30 markets in 2009)
Grew subscribers by 2,500% from 2 million to over 50 million
Saved consumers over $1.5 billion
Worked with 58,000 local businesses, serving over 100,000 deals worldwide
While some may have gasped when Groupon rejected Google’s $6 billion acquisition offer, it looks like the company is doing fine for itself on its own. This latest round of funding values the company at around $4.75 billion.
