Groupon Fever: BuyWithMe Gets $5.5 Million

Following the footsteps of Groupon ($30 million) and Living Social ($5 million), BuyWithMe ("Let's get it, together") announced a financing round yesterday (via).

"Boston-based Buywithme, an online “group buying” site, will today announce that it has secured a $5.5 million investment from Matrix Partners. Prior to the investment, the startup had been privately funded by friends and family.


Buywithme, like rival Groupon, combines the power of online shopping with social media.

Matrix’s lead partner on the deal, Nick Beim, also spearheaded the firm’s $43 million investment last August in Gilt Groupe, the U.S. leader in another buzzed-about sector of ecommerce, online luxury sample sales. (The model originated in France with the site Vente Privee).

“There are interesting similarities between Buywithme and Gilt when it comes to the nature of viral loops and the best merchandising and marketing strategies to optimize virality,” says Beim."

Besides BuyWithMe and Gilt, Matrix Partners has also a stake with Polyvore.

The day before, the German site CityDeal was the first European Groupon clone to be financed by the Samwer Brothers, Otto and Holtzbrinck (4 million euro or about $5.6 million).

A large number of Groupon clones are still awaiting their share of the financing fever.

Related posts:

• Live Shopping: Groupon Obtains Additional $5 Million Capital
• More Funding for Groupon-like Clones
• Local Deals: The First European Groupon Copycats Hit The Market

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.

Comments

[Contus]

I love BuyWithMe.com too! So happy to see you giving it the props it deserves.

[Mariam joseph]

I am one of the greatest fan of BuyWithMe.com because the deals they provide are really excellent and location specific.