Groupon to be Valued at Nearly $8 Billion

Groupon has filed for a Series G funding round that authorizes it to raise up to $950 million, according to a new report. The new round of funding comes just weeks after the group-buying website rejected a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google.

According to VC Expert, Groupon filed for a certificate to authorize the Series G round last week (an amended certificate of incorporation) and will be filing another document next week outlining the exact amount it intends to raise.

If the report is accurate, Groupon’s post-money valuation would be somewhere between $6.4 billion to $7.8 billion. It’s not clear who is participating in the round, nor is it clear how far along Groupon is in the fundraising process. However, today’s news lays the groundwork for what could be one of the biggest venture capital rounds in history.

Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website that is localized to major geographic markets in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Launched in November 2008, the first market for Groupon was Chicago, followed soon thereafter by Boston, New York City, and Toronto. As of October 2010, Groupon serves more than 150 markets in North America and 100 markets in Europe, Asia and South America and has amassed 35 million registered users.

The idea for Groupon was created by now-CEO and Pittsburgh native Andrew Mason. The idea subsequently gained the attention of his former employer, Eric Lefkofsky, who provided $1 million in "seed money" to develop the idea. Groupon is growing fast with a projected revenue of $500 million for 2010. At just under 2-years old in April 2010, the company was valued at $1.35 billion. According to a report conducted by Groupon's marketing association and reported in Forbes Magazine', which was reported by the Wall Street Journal, Groupon is "projecting that the company is on pace to make $1 billion in sales faster than any other business, ever".

Groupon also owns several international operations, all of which were originally deal-of-the-day services similar to it, but then re-branded under the Groupon name after acquisition; these have included the European-based MyCityDeal (17 May 2010), the South American ClanDescuento (22 June 2010), the Japanese service Qpod.jp, and Russian Darberry.ru (both on 17 August 2010). Prior to these acquisitions, Groupon had bought out the mobile technology company Mob.ly.

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