Dealissime co-founders Lara Rouyrès and Tatiana Jama
Image: Screenshot
LivingSocial just acquired a majority stake in Dealissime, a French daily deals startup. The startups aren’t commenting on the value of the deal and shooting down rumors but two industry sources put the value of the deal at $5-7 million.
We spoke to Dealissime co-founder and CEO Lara Rouyrès, who said that Dealissime has 20 employees and is experiencing two-digit percent month-over-month growth. The startup has had $1.8 million in gross merchandise sales.
She said the idea for an acquisition came around the same time they went out to raise money in February and they decided to go for an acquisition instead. LivingSocial wants to spend “a lot a lot of money” to build up its presence in France, which is Groupon’s biggest international market. Their goal is to be the biggest daily deals site in France by this time next year.
Dealissime’s target audience is female and they try to differentiate themselves through higher-end, more vetted deals. This is different from LivingSocial but not that much–80% of buyers in the daily deal space are women to begin with. And LivingSocial tries to differentiate itself from Groupon by building a “lifestyle” brand with broader offerings.
It’s interesting to see how big and fast the daily deals market has come in France. With Groupon’s ownership of CityDeal and LivingSocial buying Dealissime we have room for tons of competition.
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