The Group-Buying Gang Gets Bigger
An e-commerce idea that seemed to die with the dot-com bust a decade ago is taking another step toward a comeback.
Kashless, a Seattle start-up, on Tuesday started a Web site called Tippr.com to resurrect the concept of harnessing the buying power of groups of online shoppers to get discounts on everything from restaurant vouchers to television sets to spa trips. Founded by Martin Tobias, a former Microsoft (MSFT) executive and serial entrepreneur, Kashless said it has purchased ten group-buying patents that originated from a firm called Mercata, one of the group-buying start-ups that fizzled a decade ago.
Mr. Tobias said he bought the patents for an amount he wouldn’t disclose from Vulcan Capital, a Seattle venture capital firm controlled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, which backed Mercata.
