Aussie group buying platform goes shopping in HK

Dealised, the Australian developed technology platform behind group buyer Spreets, has made its first international acquisition with the purchase of Hong Kong start-up, Lokaly Network Limited.

Like Dealised, Lokaly is a platform vendor, operating the consumer group buying site ValuUp, which was included in the transaction. The acquisition bolsters Dealised’s position in the Asia Pacific where it is rapidly expanding along with Europe.

Under the deal struck with Yahoo!7 for the acquisition of Spreets in January, Dealised, the technology component of the site was spun off into a stand alone company offering white label group buying platform services to a global market.

Spreets has the exclusive licence for the platform in Australia and New Zealand for two years.

In July, Dealised raised $US5m in funding led by SingTel Group's corporate venture capital, SingTel Innov8.

It has also attracted Series A funding from Yuuwa Capital, and was launched with the help of ubiquitous technology incubator Pollenizer. It is understood that at the time of the series A capital raising Dealised was valued at $AU15 million.

High profile mobile industry exec Jonathan Marchbank is leading the company’s international expansion from its new HQ in Singapore.

Marchbank told The Register that the company now had 15 customers globally and will be signing around 10 new clients in the first quarter of 2012. A new wave of clients are emerging from the newspaper and TV sector, Marchbank revealed.

“TV companies and newspapers with declining ad revenues are using our platform for the group buying model as an adjunct to their traditional advertising model,” he said.

Citing the UK’s Daily Telegraph as the ‘poster child’ for this trend he says it is a good example of a media product grappling with declining circulation but with a massive brand and readership.

Dealised operates Telegraph Select for the publisher, offering daily and highly targeted discount deals that match with the reader demographic and location.

Scandanavia is another hot spot for group buying and Dealised growth. Marchbank said a Danish newspaper client recently ran a ‘buy one get one free’ deal for breast implants which resulted in a £1 million turnover in one day.

“Group buying is just becoming digital direct buying, the secret is using the analytics in a highly targeted way for your customer base,” he says. “Media companies are increasingly realizing that they already have the audience and a network of merchants what is missing is the technology and the analytics piece that our platform provides,” he adds.

Dealised expects to secure new white label platform clients in the Philipines, Malaysia, Thailand and Dubai in the first half of next year.

Dealised has also appointed Jason Keiles as Senior Vice President, Global Business Development, based in London. ®