Two Toronto-based group buying Web sites – TeamBuy.ca and Dealfind – are set to merge, reports the blog of the Canadian Deals Association.
The unconfirmed merger marks the consolidation in the group buying space that many have suspected since the market exploded in 2010. Since heads were turned by Google’s reported $6 billion acquisition offer to buy Groupon in 2010, a series of fast follower companies have rushed to fill the daily deals space. Many of the Web businesses work to market local businesses that don’t typically have an online presence by selling products or services at a steep discount, with the catch being that a certain minimum number of customers must buy the deal for it to be unlocked.
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TeamBuy was founded in October 2009 when Groupon was in just 12 cities across the U.S. The site counted more than 100,000 users in Toronto alone by December 2010. In a 2010 interview with ITBusiness.ca, TeamBuy’s president Edward Yao said TeamBuy.ca wasn’t looking for an exit, but didn’t rule out being acquired either.
“It’s an opportunity to do something on a grander scale,” he said at the time. “The smaller guys coming into this market may be over their head.”
TeamBuy raised a $5 million fundraising round in February 2012 and a $7 million round in July of 2011. It operates in at least 20 Canadian cities and offers an e-commerce app on its Facebook Page, along with a social spin on its own group buying site.
Dealfind originally launched as GroupClick, a spin-off of MenuPalace.com, in April 2010. In May 2011 it received $31 million in funding from Insight Venture Partners, Georgian Partners and the Ontario Venture Capital Fund. It offers users incentive to share daily deals on the site using a style of affiliate program that paid users cash if their links got clicked on and then leads to a deal purchase.
ITBusiness.ca phoned TeamBuy to confirm the news, but did not receive a response at time of publication.