Exponent buys Wowcher from Daily Mail and LivingSocial division

Mikkel Stern-Peltz
@msternpeltz
26 November 2015

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UK-based GP Exponent Private Equity has acquired online discount business Wowcher from the publisher of British tabloid the Daily Mail, DMGT, as well as the UK and Ireland divisions of LivingSocial.

Wowcher and LivingSocial will be brought together in a newco, in which DMGT will hold a stake of around 30%. Including the investment in the new holding company, DMGT reaped £29m from the exit of Wowcher.

The deal includes the UK and Irish parts of Washington, DC-headquartered LivingSocial, a VC-backed online marketplace for sharing social activities in users' local areas.

Investors in LivingSocial include Lightspeed Venture Partners, IDG Ventures, Grotech Ventures, US Venture Partners, Amazon and JP Morgan, among others.

Company
Wowcher was founded in 2011 by the DMG Media division and is a female-focused discount voucher website in the UK.

According to the DMGT, Wowcher had revenues of £30m in the 12 months to 30 September this year.

LivingSocial is an online marketplace for users to share and buy activities in their local area. The company was founded in the US capital in 2007 and is available in 27 countries.

People
Roland Bryan is the CEO of Wowcher.

Advisers
Vendor – RPC (Legal).
Equity – Allan & Overy (Legal).