retailmenotThe online coupon site RetailMeNot went public last Friday and its shares are now 32% above their IPO price. RetailMeNot is a coupon marketplace that was founded in 2007 and started on its current trajectory after being acquired by WhaleShark Media. WhaleShark Media was started as a coupon rollup play by ex-MySpace VP John Faith and ex-BankRate COO Cotter Cuningham. WhaleShark was founded in 2010 with an initial investment from Austin Ventures of $750K. WhaleShark then embarked on a buying spree that included the purchase of 10 coupon startups, including sites in the UK (VoucherCodes.co.UK), Germany (Bons-DE-Reduction.com), Netherlands (Actiepagina.nl), and France (Ma-Reduc.com). WhaleShark changed its corporate name to RetailMeNot in 2013.

RetailMeNot’s investors include Google Ventures ($12.5M), Austin Ventures ($37.3M), IVP ($50M), Norwest Venture Partners ($50M), and Adam Street Partners ($15M). RetailMeNot raised $280M over 4 rounds before going public and had 2012 revenues of $144M. The company is currently valued at 9.3x sales (i.e. $1.5Bil). Below are some more statistics on the company’s IPO and venture funding. This business will be fun to watch as a public company.

Stats

Data Source: SEC: Form S-1
Further Articles:
Bloomberg: High Rollers After RetailMeNot Whats Next for Austin Ventures
WSJ: Coupon Site RetailMeNot’s IPO Soars 32% in First Day
Crunchbase: WhaleSharkMedia