If you can’t beat ’em, aggregate ’em. That was my take in late 2010 when a host of daily deal aggregators sprang up at the height of the whole Groupon-clone thing. So you’ll be forgiven if this post reeks of déjà vu for you, too.
Bownty, the Denmark-based daily deal aggregator, which currently targets the UK, France, Spain, Germany and Denmark, has raised $1.1 million in new funding from Danish SEED Capital, and Accelerace Invest, the startup accelerator and investment programme.
The new funds will be used to further expand across Europe, with a focus on raising awareness of the Bownty brand and its consumer proposition. Yes, there’s life in those daily deals yet.
Competing with the likes of Buyometric, Deal Zippy, and City Treats, Bownty aggregates over 2,500 deals from over 100 daily deal sites each day, including Groupon, Living Social, KGB Deals and Wowcher.
It’s a familiar daily deal aggregator play: Subscribers receive one daily email that matches their preferences, thus negating the problem of so-called “daily deal fatigue” caused by too many and spammy emails advertising irrelevant deals. There are also apps for iOS and Android. In addition, users can store all of their deals in their Bownty “Deal Wallet”, which will notify them of any expiring deals.
“There has been a lot of skepticism about the future of this industry,” says Steffen W. Frølund, Founder and CEO of Bownty in a statement. “But this investment proves that the daily deal market is not dead. We have seen significant growth and I believe there is still huge untapped potential in curating the daily deals marketplace.”
Meanwhile, David Ventzel, Senior Management Consultant at Accelerace Invest, chimes in: “The fast expansion of Bownty from Denmark to the UK, France, Spain and Germany supports our belief that this company represents the future of online2offline commerce”.
That future is a daily deal aggregator, apparently.
Gotta go, it’s 2010 calling…