Groupon Takes Aim With Hyperpublic Acquisition

Groupon has acquired Hyperpublic, a New York City startup that provides location-based data. Some members of the team, shown here, will join Groupon.

Image: Hyperpublic

Groupon’s got another acquisition under its belt: It just bought Hyperpublic, a New York-based startup that builds databases of local information, including deals and events, and provides them to developers.

As the New York Times reported on Friday, some Hyperpublic members will begin working at Groupon, according to Jordan Cooper, cofounder and chief executive of Hyperpublic, who declined to disclose the terms of the deal.

Mr. Cooper said he could not speak specifically about Groupon’s future plans for Hyperpublic. But he noted that figuring out how local markets work and using public information from the social Web to understand consumer habits and interests is becoming a hot area for many companies. It’s not hard to imagine that Hyperpublic would be able to help Groupon better target subscribers in some of its coming products, including Groupon Now, a service that lets users see deals happening in real time, based on their location.

The 2-year-old company announced the acquisition on its blog.

"We are so proud to announce that Hyperpublic has been acquired by the rocket ship that is Groupon. This is a huge win for our team, our investors, and everyone who contributed to our company over the past two years," the post said. "We set out to change the way people interacted with the local environment and are pumped to continue that mission as a part of one of the fastest growing and most disruptive companies in the world."

The company is backed by Lerer Ventures, where Cooper is also a general partner. According to TechCrunch, the company was founded in 2010 by Cooper and Doug Petkanics and has raised $1.15 million.

The move follows a slew of other acquisitions made by Groupon, including the purchase of big-data startup Adku earlier this month. Cooper told TechCrunch that Groupon was after Hyperpublic's technology and not its team alone.