Yesterday we reported that fast growing ecommerce startup Groupon was in the process of raising nearly $1 billion in new venture capital at a $4.75 billion valuation. “The deal should be closed in a few weeks,” we heard from a source.
And in fact the deal hasn’t closed yet – at least, not all of it. But the company has raised a healthy half billion dollars in new venture money at that valuation in the last couple of weeks. Documents signed, checks cashed, the whole nine yards. Now they’re talking to other investors about filling out the round.
So who invested? Digital Sky Technologies, the lead in the last round, took a big chunk of the round, we’ve heard from multiple sources. And new investors Fidelity and Morgan Stanley have jumped in as well.
As we suspected, the large majority of the money already raised is being used to cash out founders and execs, say new sources. More as this develops.
We’ve reached out to DST and Groupon for comment. No response yet from DST. Groupon declined to comment.