Groupon to Expand Local Sales Staff

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Having secured a funding round worth $950 million earlier this month, daily deals specialist Groupon appears to be sinking at least part of that capital into a sales force expansion across the U.S.

The Chicago-based company is currently advertising over 50 sales and business development roles nationwide as it seeks to expand its presence in local markets, including multiple vacancies for major cities in states including California, Texas, and it's home state of Illinois. Fittingly, the opportunities are being advertised alongside the daily deals sent to recipients in its 50 million-strong e-mail database.

In addition to sales positions the company is also looking to hire around 20 staff for its product development teams, based both in Chicago and California, and a further 25 to add to its marketing, editorial, and support teams. Among those roles is a vacancy for a sales recruiter, which explains, "We continue to need more people to do more things to make this place more Grouponic. So, we're adding more on-site recruiters to the mix."

In November Groupon received a $3.5 million incentive package from the state of Illinois in return for agreeing to hire 250 staff in its Chicago office. The firm had reportedly intended to hire those staff in its out-of-state offices prior to the arrangement. According to Businessweek, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn explained the investment by saying, "This is a competitive environment… We want to encourage companies to create jobs here in Illinois."

Prior to securing its $950 funding round this month, Groupon turned down a reported $6 billion acquisition offer from Google, according to a Bloomberg target="_blank">report. Investors for the new funding round - which reportedly values the company at $4.74 billion - include venture-capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Groupon announced.