Fish On – WhaleShark Media Lands $150 Million in Financing

Venture capital continues to flow into the couponing and daily dealing business sector. Online coupon company WhaleShark Media has raised $150 million in financing from JP Morgan and Institutional Venture Partners. The new round of cash infusion brings the company’s total funding to almost $300 million and values it at roughly $750 million, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

The Austin-based company also announced on today that IVP Partner Jules Maltz is joining its board of directors. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Jules joined Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) in August 2008 and has over ten years of venture capital and startup experience. He focuses on later-stage venture investments in rapidly-growing Internet and software companies. Jules led IVP’s investments in BuddyMedia and Dropbox, and was actively involved in IVP’s investments in LivingSocial, Marketo, Ngmoco (DeNA), Spiceworks, Sugar, Twitter, and Yext. Jules also serves on the Board of Directors of BuddyMedia, H5, and Yext.

WhaleShark caters to people looking for bargains. People can go to its site RetailMeNot.com, for example, choose a coupon and then shop online for the item by typing in a promotional code to trigger the deal. Unlike daily deal sites like Groupon or LivingSocial, WhaleShark does not require users to register nor does it push deals to subscribers via email or mobile alerts.

Its model replicates that of newspaper circulars, organizing coupons online from 130,000 merchants, and it competes with companies like Coupon Mountain and Savings.com. About half of its coupons come from users who can post deals to the site.

“We’re going to stick with coupons,” WhaleShark CEO Cotter Cunningham said about the business, adding it plans to use the funding to go shopping. “Our target is to buy a handful of additional properties over the next 12 months.”

WhaleShark makes money by taking a small commission from people who use a coupon as well as through advertising. It has revenue of more than $70 million and is profitable, said Cunningham.

About WhaleShark Media.com:

WhaleShark Media Inc. is the world’s leading marketplace for coupons and deals. The company’s websites connect consumers seeking savings with discounts from more than 130,000 top U.S. merchants, stores and retailers. WhaleShark Media welcomes more than 265 million visitors to shop its sites every year. The WhaleShark Media portfolio of coupon and deal websites includes RetailMeNot.com (the largest online coupon site in the world), VoucherCodes.co.uk, Deals.com, Deals2Buy.com, Gutschein-Codes.de, CheapStingyBargains.com, CouponSeven.com, and CouponShare.com. WhaleShark Media is a fast-growing, profitable company funded by venture capital firms Austin Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Adams Street Partners and Google Ventures and is based in Austin, Texas.

Source: Chicago Tribune