BuyBox announced today that they have raised 1.7 Million euros from Iris Capital and Midi Capital in order to brings its social payments soluion for eMerchants to international markets. Founded in 2010, BuyBox has had a fair amount of traction and interest, having already added Celio, Wonderbox.fr and Micromania as clients.
Essentially, BuyBox provides a white label solution to eCommerce sites who wish to provide deals, group buying, or virtual gift cards and the like – think everything that could combine social and payments, and you’ve got BuyBox. Their patented technology seems to have pleased French retailers and eCommerce sites, so it will be interesting to see who they butt heads with internationally, and whether Social Payments will continue to grow, or whether it’s just a recent trend.
Originally spotted by Mike Butcher, this is the second startup from the Midi-Pyrhenes region to raise a round of funding this month – Phonitive raised 400k€ from regional angels and funds. I can’t name too many startups from the region off the top of my head, but the site TechList.in counts 35 startups in Toulouse alone, so that’s potentially an indicator. LeCamping opened up a satellite accelerator in Toulouse which is currently going through its first season. LoungeUp, SigFox, OverBlog and Scoop.It also call Toulouse home.