With Groupon having raised $500 million over Christmas, the kindling is well alight under the deals-buying paradigm. And investments are still being made in to the patchwork of European counterparts…
France’s Bon-Prive, which offers discounts in Paris, Toulouse, Nantes and Nice, says it has raised a €1.5 million first VC round, ahead of launching in 10 more cities, TechCrunch reports. The site has 150,000 users and 30 supply partners, though Groupon trumps it, operating in 30 cities.
Private buying club sites are also attracting investment across European countries, particularly in high-fashion and luxury goods.
Topping them all, Amazon bought pan-continental fashion buying club BuyVIP for a reported €70 million in October and eBay bought Germany’s Brands4friends for $150 million in December.
BuyVIP’s Barcelona-based, Latin America-focused rival Privalia scored a big €70 ($97.79/£61.23) million fifth VC round to fuel expansion.
There are plenty more besides. Each could figure in sales to market leaders like Groupon and LivingSocial, to commerce giants like eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) and Amazon… or they could just go on occupying their own national territory independently, or diversifying in to multiple non-English-speaking countries the big guns aren’t paying attention to.