Monday, April 18, 2011

Whrrl Creator Pelago Acquired By Groupon

Seattle-based Pelago, the firm behind mobile social networking software service Whrrl, has been acquired by Groupon. Pelago announced the acquisition on Monday afternoon. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Pelago was venture backed by T-Mobile Venture Fund, DAG Ventures, Reliance Technology Ventures Ltd., Trilogy Equity Partners, Bezos Expeditions, and Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers. Whrrl was a direct competitor to such social check-in services as Foursquare and Gowalla. As a result of the acquisition, Pelago said that it will be shutting the Whrrl service, but that "many of the inventions contained within may reemerge under the Groupon banner."