LivingSocial picks $5M

January 5th, 2010

By Allan Maurer

Tim O'Shaughnessy, CEO, LivingSocial

WASHINGTON, DC – If you are a Facebook user, you have probably seen or used one or more of LivingSocial’s apps where people choose their Top 5 favorite books, movies, beers, games, songs and so on. The company has raised $5 million from Grotech Ventures, AOL founder Steve Case and his wife Jean and company CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy.

O’Shaughnessy tells TechJournal South the 35-employee company plans to use the new funding to expand its group buying service, LivingSocial Deals, into additional cities this year.

The service, which sends local deals to users who get bargains if enough of them buy, is currently in Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco, New York, DC, and Seattle.

Founded in 2007, the DC-based company has 3.7 million active users on Facebook and its Pick 5 app is among the most popular on the social networking site. We’ve been debating our friend’s choices of movies, songs, and books via the app for a year.

The company previously raised $5 million from Grotech and Steve and Jean Case in June 2008.

In a previous interview with us, O’Shaughnessy said the site is “Filling some of the gaps” left by disappearing newspaper sections on books, music and movies.”

The site posts more reviews daily than Amazon does, he told us.

“We’re excited to have the funds necessary to focus on execution. We expect 2010 to be a great year for LivingSocial,” he says.

Previously on TechJournal South: bit.ly/7Xotca

Online: www.livingsocial.com

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