Groupon Acquires Whrrl Creator Pelago

Daily deals site Groupon has acquired Whrrl parent company Pelago this afternoon. The iFund-backed Pelago is most famous for its Whrrl product, which is a Foursquare-like LBS services app that allows people to check into places.

Pelago CEO and former Amazon executive Jeff Holden will be now be overseeing product development at Groupon and members of the Pelago team will be taking on roles in “Grouponnovations” after Whrrl shuts down on April 30th 2011 . No word yet on the price of the acquisition.

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason writes:

“Here’s a great way to start the week…  We’re excited to announce that the minds at Pelago, creators of Whrrl, have officially joined the Groupon family.

We’ve always liked CEO Jeff Holden, the Whrrl team and the technology they’ve developed.  Their obsession with real-world serendipitous discovery, or Anti-Search, is core to Groupon’s mission.  It’s about discovering what you didn’t know you didn’t know, right in your own backyard. Jeff intimately gets consumer buying behavior and the importance of a great user experience, and his team is this awesome combination of data-driven creatives…the people who create smart products that are really fun to use.

With Jeff overseeing Groupon product development and many Pelago people taking integral roles in future Grouponnovations, Whrrl will be retiring on April 30, 2011. You can read more about that on Pelago’s blog at http://www.pelago.com/blog/announcements/2011/04/big-day/.

So here’s a warm welcome to Jeff and the team!”

Pelago had $22.4 million in funding from T-Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Bezos Expeditions, DAG, Reliance and Trilogy Equity Partners. Groupon of course is funded to the gills (hence the shopping spree) with $1.14B from NEA, DST and others.