MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Coupons.com Incorporated, the recognized leader in digital coupons, including online printable, social, mobile and loyalty card promotions, today announced that it received an investment of $200 million from institutional investors. The investment will be used to further accelerate the company’s growing momentum in shifting the newspaper-dominated coupons industry to digital as well as expand the coupon industry. Up to $100 million of the funds will be used to facilitate liquidity for employees and early investors.
“This investment will help fuel our growth, as we continue to revolutionize the multi-billion dollar coupons industry that, for decades, has relied predominately on newspapers for distribution,” said Steven Boal, CEO of Coupons.com Incorporated. “As newspaper readership continues to decline and more consumers are looking online for savings, digital coupons are gaining significant momentum, transforming an industry and offering consumers innovative options to save on the more than half a trillion dollars spent on grocery items alone in the U.S. every year.”
Coupons have already experienced a considerable shift from print to online. Digital coupons represent the fastest growing segment of the coupon industry, which distributed more than 332 billion coupons to consumers in 2010. In 2009, digital coupons represented 10 percent of all coupons redeemed, up from 1.1 percent in 2006. Newspaper coupons as a proportion of all coupons redeemed declined from 63 percent to 50 percent during the same three-year period.1
The company’s goal is to expand its reach across the digital landscape—everywhere brands and retailers can engage with consumers. The investment announced today will be used, more specifically, to:
- Meet the demand for the accelerating shift of the coupon industry online by growing the company’s staff across the organization. Coupons.com intends to hire an additional 100 employees in 2011 to grow its nearly 300 person staff by more than a third in just six months. The company expects the growth to come across the organization but primarily in its engineering, sales and client marketing departments.
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Grow the digital coupon industry by increasing the number of coupon
issuers and coupons available and number of consumers using them.
- Continue to deploy new tools to further lower the barriers to entry for companies to offer coupons, enabling smaller manufacturers, which could not place offers in the newspaper insert because of budget requirements or category exclusivity restrictions, to utilize coupons to engage with consumers.
- Continue to attract a new demographic of coupon user, who engage with new couponing methods, like digital, social and mobile coupons, but typically would not engage with traditional paper coupons.
- Introduce new products and services. Offer new money-saving services to provide consumers with more ways to save, including new mobile and social media couponing offerings.
- Further expand internationally. While the company offers coupons and vouchers in 12 European countries through its 50 percent ownership of UK-based Couponstar Ltd., it intends to invest to increase and strengthen its international presence.
- Complete acquisitions. The company has made several strategic acquisitions in its history, most notably Free State Labs LLC, the developers of Grocery iQ, now the leading shopping list application for mobile phones, which enables users to create, manage and share shopping lists and get and use coupons. The company intends to continue to make opportunistic acquisitions.
“Frugal is the new black,” continued Boal. “As consumers are looking for savings and deals more than ever before, Coupons.com is expanding the coupons and promotions market, by allowing more brands to connect with more consumers at every touch-point across the digital landscape. Coupons.com has created a digital marketplace where brands, retailers and consumers can connect at every step along the consumer’s path to purchase.”
Coupons.com is by far the largest provider of digital coupons. Its digital coupon network is comprised of tens of thousands of websites across the Internet, including retailer sites that span 46,000 store locations, as well as affiliate publisher’s sites. At the center of the network is Coupons.com, the 43rd largest website in the U.S. (Nielsen, April 2011). The Coupons.com digital coupon network also includes consumer electronics, shopping carts and kiosks, as well as apps, including the company’s own Grocery iQ and Coupons.com mobile applications.
In addition, the company is the go-to source for manufacturers wanting to integrate coupons into their digital media initiatives, including social media, such as Facebook Fan pages and Twitter feeds, corporate websites, product microsites, email campaigns, banner ads and mobile applications. More detailed company information and a list of products and services can be found in the Coupons.com Company Fact Sheet at www.couponsinc.com/corporate/OurCompany/AboutUs.aspx
Allen & Company LLC acted as financial advisor to Coupons.com Incorporated.
The company is holding a teleconference for the media today at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Qualified members of the media can request access information by emailing press@coupons.com.
1 NCH Marketing Services, Inc
About Coupons.com Incorporated
Coupons.com Incorporated is the recognized leader in digital coupons, including online printable, save to loyalty card and mobile promotions. For consumers, the company’s products include Coupons.com, the 43nd largest website in the U.S. †, as well as Grocery iQ and Coupons.com mobile applications. For brand marketers, the company distributes digital coupons to millions of consumers through Coupons.com and tens of thousands of websites comprising the Coupons.com digital coupon network. The company also powers digital coupon initiatives in 1-to-1 online marketing campaigns—including display advertising, email and social media programs. For publishers, the company offers solutions to monetize website traffic, including branded microsites, and Brandcaster, a self-service coupons syndication platform. Clients include hundreds of top consumer packaged goods brands (including Clorox, General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg’s, Kimberly-Clark, and Kraft Foods), leading restaurant, toy and entertainment companies, as well as top retailers (such as A&P, CVS, Duane Reade, H-E-B, Kmart, Kroger, Safeway and Walgreens). Founded in 1998, the company is based in Mountain View, CA. To start printing coupons, visit www.coupons.com. To learn more about the company visit www.couponsinc.com. Visit Coupons.com on Facebook at www.facebook.com/couponscom.
† Nielsen, April 2011