LivingSocial operates a daily deals platform that sells discounted local offers and promotions. The company has pursued aggressive expansion while attempting to reach profitability, with plans to increase investment in marketing, technology, and mobile. In 2012 LivingSocial doubled revenue from $250 million to $536 million but continued to operate at a large loss, reporting a $650 million net loss in 2012 (up from $499 million in 2011). The company cut about 400 employees (roughly 10 percent of its workforce) in a November restructuring across sales, customer and merchant services, and takeout/delivery. LivingSocial has raised more than $800 million since its 2007 founding, and management is targeting cash-flow positivity while extending its lines of business. LivingSocial is a Groupon-rival daily-deals company that appears to be pushing off an IPO. According to an SEC filing and reporting, it raised $176 million in a new private round that Bloomberg said values the company at $6 billion. The filing and reporting indicate the round was led by JP Morgan, with existing investors Lightspeed Ventures and Amazon participating. The deal brought LivingSocial's total capital raised to $808 million and may be the first tranche of a larger $400 million offering under which it could raise additional tranches. Advisors Code Advisors (Quincy Smith's firm) and JP Morgan received $5.3 million in finders' fees, and reports say no existing shareholders or executives took money off the table. The company said the funding will allow it to continue expanding organically and through acquisitions without tapping the public markets. LivingSocial operates daily-deal marketplaces and has been expanding internationally through acquisitions. A few days after announcing purchases of Ensogo (Thailand and the Philippines), DealKreken (Indonesia), and GoNabit (Middle East), the company filed SEC disclosures showing stock issued for acquisitions. The filings show equity issuances valued at $24.6 million on June 21 and $4.8 million on June 22, totaling $29.4 million. The offering is described as “in connection with a business combination transaction, such as a merger, acquisition or exchange offer.” LivingSocial confirmed the filings are related to those international acquisitions. The SEC filings disclose only the stock issued, so the deals may have included additional cash consideration. LivingSocial operates a daily-deals marketplace that aggregates and distributes discounted offers to consumers. The company recently raised another $400 million and is expanding distribution to scale its deal volume and demand. It announced a partnership with Next Jump, which runs rewards networks for corporations, MasterCard MarketPlace, and the Hilton HHonors program. Next Jump’s networks encompass about 100 million consumers who belong to rewards and perks programs. Under the agreement Next Jump will gain full access to LivingSocial’s inventory and the two companies will work to integrate their respective technologies. The deal provides LivingSocial a new distribution channel to help it handle and scale up the volume of deals and consumer demand. The article frames the tie-up as a natural fit and notes LivingSocial has more traction and better deals than Next Jump’s own daily-deals site, OverWhelming Offers. LivingSocial is a daily-deals site that sells handpicked local experiences and services with discounts typically of 50%–70%. It serves more than 10 million subscribers across the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland and Australia and operates in more than 120 locations. The company reports booking revenues of more than $1 million per day on average and was projected to book well over $500 million in revenue in 2011. LivingSocial has expanded through acquisitions and new verticals, acquiring adventure company Urban Escapes, taking a controlling stake in Australian business Jump On It, and launching LivingSocial Family Edition, Campus Deals and LivingSocial Escapes. The company employs dedicated local area experts to work directly with merchants and frequently launches new markets—on average one per day according to the company. It said it will use recent investment to maintain a steady drumbeat of worldwide launches and overall business growth while continuing to serve its subscriber base from its Washington, D.C. headquarters.

Total raised

$942M

Funding rounds

10

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Feb 2013