PayPal Honey
 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Cashback website, online coupons |
| Founded | October 2012 |
| Founders | George Ruan Ryan Hudson |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Area served | United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, India |
Key people | George Ruan (CEO) Ryan Hudson (co-founder) Glen Allison (COO) |
Number of employees | 209 (worldwide, 2018) |
| Parent | PayPal |
| Website | joinhoney |
Honey Science Corp., headquartered in Los Angeles, California,[1] operates a browser extension that aggregates and automatically applies online coupons.[2] It is a subsidiary of PayPal. Honey's revenue comes from a commission made on user transactions with partnering retailers.[3] When a member makes a purchase from select merchants, Honey shares part of its commission with the member in a cashback program.[4] Users are notified of price drops and price history on selected items sold by participating online stores.[5] Its browser extension is available on Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Microsoft Edge.[6]
History
Entrepreneurs Ryan Hudson and George Ruan founded Honey in November 2012 in Los Angeles, California, after building a prototype of the browser extension in late October 2012. A bug tester leaked the tool to Reddit, where it went viral.[7] By March 2014, the company had 900,000 organic users.[8]
Financing history
In 2014, Honey raised $1.8 million in seed money, followed by a $4 million Series A round in 2016. By October 2017, Honey raised a $9 million Series B round.[9]
Honey raised a $26 million Series C round, led by Anthos Capital in March 2017.[10]
By January 2018, Honey raised a total of $40.8 million in venture backing.[11]
On January 6, 2020, it was acquired by PayPal for about $4 billion.[12]
References
- ^ Vincent, Roger. "Online coupon firm Honey taking over historic Coca-Cola plant in Arts District". latimes.com. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
- ^ McAlone, Nathan. "14 ways to save money by thinking like a millennial". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
- ^ Rey, Jason Del (2018-04-02). "Honey — the under-the-radar coupon startup — has held talks to raise around $100 million in a new investment". Recode. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
- ^ Kane, Libby. "A struggling dad built an app to buy his kids cheaper pizza — and now his company has 5 million downloads and $40 million". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
- ^ Ellingson, Annlee (January 31, 2018). "How Honey helps users keep their New Year's resolution to save money". American City Business Journals.
- ^ Nield, David. "How to Spot Genuine Discounts During Your Holiday Shopping". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
- ^ Shontell, Alyson. "New Coupon Startup 'Honey' Has Had 9 Successful Investor Meetings In A Row". Business Insider.
- ^ "Honey Introduces A Universal Cart For Online Shoppers Where Savings Are Automatically Applied". TechCrunch.
- ^ "Honey Science Section Overview". Crunchbase.
- ^ Pierson, David. "Can't find a coupon code? This L.A. start-up does all the work for you". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Ketchum, Dan. "Got a Problem? Turn It Into a Business Like These 15 Companies". www.gobankingrates.com.
- ^ "PayPal Completes Acquisition of Honey" (Press release). PR Newswire. January 6, 2020.