LivingSocial Picks Up $400 Million in Funding
Social-buying brand will use money to accelerate domestic and global expansion.
LivingSocial has $400 million in new funding, the daily deals platform confirmed with ClickZ this morning.
While The Wall Street Journal reported Lightspeed Venture Partner, Amazon.com, and Institutional Venture Partners were the investors behind the sum, LivingSocial wouldn’t disclose its backers.
Maire Griffin, spokesperson for the Washington, DC-based company, said via email, “LivingSocial did secure $400 million in investment bringing the company’s total investment raised to more than $600 million. We are respecting the policy of our investors not to reveal their names, but the round does include a mix of world-class public and private investors, which includes new and existing investors.
Griffin added, “LivingSocial will use this investment to carry on its aggressive domestic and international growth and continued product innovation.”
LivingSocial and competitor Groupon are the clear marketplace leaders in a burgeoning space involving around 200 deals-based brands. Todd Chafee, a general partner with Institutional Venture Partners in Menlo Park, CA, told the Journal that LivingSocial is adding about 1.5 million new members each week. In total, he said it has 26 million members in 250 markets in 12 countries.
Last month, BIA/Kelsey found that the group-buying/daily deals niche would balloon to $4 billion by 2015. In 2010, the Chantilly, VA-based company’s research said the daily deals services captured $873 million. If correct, its projections indicate a 35 percent compound growth rate during the next four years.
