Groupon Raises, Like, A Billion Dollars
Groupon has closed the remained of that huge $950 million financing round which we first reported on in late December. They closed on roughly half of it then, from DST, Fidelity and Morgan Stanley. We then learned Kleiner Perkins was also in the round.
Context & Ripple Effects
This round has been assembling in public since November, when Bloomberg reported Groupon was seeking funding at a possible $3 billion valuation. By December 28 TechCrunch had the real number: a $950 million round at a $4.75 billion valuation, with Fortune disclosing a $500 million tranche days later — all of this just weeks after Groupon walked away from an acquisition offer from Google.
The close completes the picture: DST, Fidelity and Morgan Stanley put in roughly half in late December, Kleiner Perkins joined on January 7, and today's announcement confirms the rest of the round is filled. A company that declined a check from Google instead raised nearly a billion dollars from Wall Street and venture names to stay independent.
First-order effects
- Groupon now holds roughly $950 million in new capital at a $4.75 billion valuation, giving it war chest and runway to expand without a strategic buyer.
Second-order effects
- DST, Fidelity and Morgan Stanley anchoring the round pulls institutional and late-stage money deeper into consumer web deals at venture-scale prices, raising the bar for whatever rival daily-deal operators must raise to keep pace.
Third-order effects
- If mega-rounds keep replacing acquisitions for breakout consumer companies, the exit path shifts from sell-to-a-strategic toward staying private longer with financial investors — a structure DST in particular has been building across its portfolio.
The trend: Late-stage mega-rounds are emerging as a credible alternative to acquisition for breakout consumer web companies, letting founders trade a strategic exit for independence plus scale.