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Groupon Poker: Dailydeal Raises $7 Million Euro From Mangrove

The high-stakes poker game with the German Groupon clones goes into the next round. After Citydeal, now Dailydeal announces the up till now largest German financing round (GE/EN):

“Mangrove Capital Partners (Brands4Friends, KupiVIP, Zlio, etc.) and Adinvest invest 7 million euro in Dailydeal.de”

Dailydeal had already started with a seed round and then a “seven figure” financing round. In comparison, the Samwer operation Citydeal has gathered up till now cumulative capital of 9 million euro.

In the US, Groupon contender LivingSocial recently raised $25 million.

On the topic of Groupon clones: Techcrunch posted last weekend some dry commentary on some obvious Groupon clones outside of the US.

Related posts:

• Groupon Fever: CityDeal Gets Another 5 Million Euro
• Groupon Fever: LivingSocial Nabs Another $25 Million
• Local Deals: The First European Groupon Copycats Hit The Market

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

BabyAge Raises $15 Million for the Fight Against Diapers.com

Not many companies in the US are generating more buzz than the VC driven Diapers.com, the leading online retailer for baby care products (see company profile and article from Inc. Magazine).

Despite just being founded in 2004, Diapers.com effortlessly overtook the 1999 founded BabyAge. By 2008 with revenues of $89 million, they had already tripled the performance of BabyAge. 2009 apparently saw their revenues double again.

It isn’t surprising now that BabyAge has announced a financing round of $15 million (press release, PDF). Diapers.com had already added to their $7 million war chest an additional $30 million from Accel and others last Autumn. BabyAge had up till this point reacted fairly passively, with the exception of a Deal Of The Day campaign.

December saw the private shopping club Zulily raise a modest $4.6 million. Zulily has also targeted the young parent demographic.

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

E-Commerce Drive-Ins: A Growing Trend in France

Delivery by post is not particularly the best method for large internet purchases. The trend for drive-in solutions is growing increasingly in France with concepts such as Auchan Drive or Chronodrive.

The English language blog of the Lebensmittelzeitung posted recently the article “Germans drive, French click&drive”:

"French retailers have been experimenting with drive-ins for around a decade, but things really began to accelerate at the beginning of last year.


Retailer cooperative Leclerc already has 32 “Express Drive” collection points and wants to open another 15 by the end of June.

Rival retailer cooperative Système U has 200 packing stations and wants to double this number without, however, specifying a timeframe.

Major multiple Casino and retailer cooperative Intermarché are currently testing three viz. two drive-ins. Market leader Carrefour has one “Carrefour Ooshop Drive” in the Paris suburb of Villeneuve la Garenne just off autoroute 86. 

Metro Group’s French Cash & Carry subsidiary has opened four packing stations in the south of France, but these are exclusively for its bulk customers who prefer to save time on collection rather than for end consumers wishing to order online.

Nonetheless, Metro Manager Philippe Bappel says he wants to open 15 drive-ins this year and a total of 55 throughout the country medium-term."

In the US, some are even more advanced:

"At Walmart.com over 40 per cent of its online orders are picked-up from the local store. This has encouraged the retail giant to test “drive-thru” pick-up options and redesign stores to include front-of-house pick-up counters.


Sears Holdings is testing a “MyGofer” store outside Chicago, where 80 per cent of the floor space is devoted to backroom storage and the rest to pick-up.

Sears Holdings’ Kmart subsidiary even encourages competitors to use its outlets as a central pick-up location.

Speculation is also rife that Amazon.com might begin to create pick-up locations."

In Germany, the Rewe Group is running a pilot program in Cologne.

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

Voyage Privé Targets Growth to 200 Million Euro in 2010

The French members only travel deal club Voyage Privé is aiming to expand their business from “over 100 million euro to 200 million euro” in 2010 (FR/EN).

Last November, founder Denis Philipon criticized the monotony of online offerings in the travel industry in an in-depth interview. Further insights into Voyage Privé’s strategy to be found on Le Journal du Net’s article (FR/EN).

Voyage Privé is now present in Spain, Italy, Great Britain and the USA in addition to their home territory, France.

40% of their revenues are generated via hotel offerings. Their latest market foothold has been with campaigns with/for top-rated restaurants.

Voyage Privé has been operating profitably since 2008, has 100 employees in France and additionally 10 per international branch.

Voyage Privé launched in the US last February to go head-to-head against reigning industry leader Travelzoo, who managed to earn $94 million (PDF) in commission revenues in 2009. See also the latest management presentation (PDF).

In the US, Gilt Groupe (with Jetsetter) and now Kayak have joined the bustling private sale club business.

Related posts:

• Online Travel Club Voyage Privé Targets 95 Million Euros for 2009
• Fast Company on Kayak.com and MySpace vs. Facebook
• French Online Travel Club Voyage Prive Broke Even in 2007

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

Social Banking: Prosper Raises Additional Financing - Up To $15.8 Million

The social banking industry seems to be going through a sort of revival. Right in the nick of time, Prosper announced a further financing round to the tune of between $13.3 - $15.8 million for mid April. (via)

“Prosper.com, the world’s largest peer-to-peer lending marketplace with nearly one million members and over 32,000 funded loans totaling over $193 million, today announced that the company entered into a Letter of Intent with new and existing investors for a Series D round in the range of $13.3 million to $15.8 million. Prosper expects the closing to happen no later than April 15, 2010. Prosper has raised a total of $43 million to date.”

In the US, Lending Club is another important industry player, whereas the leader in the social banking industry is the British Zopa, which recently turned 5.

Related post:

• NY Times Reports Social Lending in Crisis

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

Fashion Vault: eBay Gets Into Private Sales Club Business

eBay has indeed decided to get into the members only sales club business. A few days ago they officially launched Fashion Vault (“eBay Officially Launching Fashion Vault”).

Since November eBay has run a test phase with four Vente-Privée style sales campaigns. Previously, eBay had already test ran so-called “Flash Sales” for clothes, shoes and accessories.

Until now, eBay has insisted on summarizing their overstock/liquidation strategy into outlet store and Wow campaigns.

All of the reports of eBay’s Fashion Vault launch can be followed back to an announcement article in the WSJ.

Related posts:

• eBay Germany’s Wow! Campaign Makes 10 Million Euro in First 6 Months
• LSD 010: eBay Germany’s Managing Director on the Wow! Campaigns
• The Shop Exchange: Vente-Privée on Amazon and eBay’s Radar

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