Zappedy
Zappedy is a company.
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Financial History
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Valuation
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Leadership Team
Key people at Zappedy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded Zappedy?
Zappedy was founded by Francisco Larrain (Founder/CEO).
Zappedy is a company.
Key people at Zappedy.
Zappedy was founded by Francisco Larrain (Founder/CEO).
Zappedy was founded by Francisco Larrain (Founder/CEO).
Zappedy was a San Francisco-based software company founded in 2010 that developed applications to help brick-and-mortar retailers understand, attract, and retain customers by analyzing data from direct feeds and credit card aggregators.[1] It enabled next-generation commerce, entertainment, and mobile advertising by recognizing customers' offline purchases alongside online activities, serving local businesses like retailers to bridge online marketing with offline purchase tracking.[1][2] The company achieved early traction and was acquired by Groupon in July 2011 for at least $10.2 million in equity, marking a quick exit in the ad tech space.[1]
Zappedy targeted small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), particularly retailers, solving the problem of fragmented customer data in physical stores by creating a unified view of online and offline behaviors to drive targeted marketing and retention.[1][2]
Zappedy emerged from the early 2010s startup scene in San Francisco, founded in 2010 as a Chilean-origin startup with U.S. headquarters at 627-731 The Embarcadero.[1] Key co-founders included Evan MacMillan, who later became product director at Groupon post-acquisition and went on to co-found Gridspace, a conversational AI firm for contact centers.[7] The idea stemmed from recognizing the need for local businesses to leverage online tools for offline customer insights, amid rising interest in daily deals and location-based services.[1][2][7]
Early traction came swiftly: investors like Innovation Endeavors and Wenceslao Casares backed the company, leading to its acquisition by Groupon in 2011 after just one year of operation, highlighting a pivotal moment in the daily deals boom.[1] Founders and team members, including Na’ama Moran and Ramneek Khurana, gained hands-on experience with SMBs like restaurants, influencing later ventures in payments and voice tech.[3][6]
Zappedy's edge lay in its data-driven approach to retail customer engagement:
Zappedy rode the 2010-2011 wave of daily deals and location-based services, coinciding with Groupon's explosive growth and the smartphone boom that enabled mobile purchase tracking.[1][7] Timing was ideal: retailers struggled with digital transformation amid rising e-commerce, and Zappedy's offline-online bridge addressed a key gap in ad tech before widespread data privacy regulations.[1]
Market forces like exploding group buying platforms and credit card data availability favored it, influencing the ecosystem by accelerating SMB adoption of analytics—experience that alumni applied to later successes in food payments (Sourcery), voice AI (Gridspace), and fintech investments.[3][5][6][7] It exemplified early ad tech's role in hybrid retail, paving the way for modern customer data platforms.
Post-acquisition, Zappedy integrated into Groupon but its legacy endures through alumni driving innovations in AI, payments, and contact centers—Evan MacMillan's Gridspace now automates voice interactions, echoing Zappedy's data unification.[5][7] As a defunct entity since 2011, its direct future is closed, but it seeded talent in persistent trends like conversational AI and SMB digitization.[3][6]
Expect its influence to evolve indirectly via ex-team networks in fintech and voice tech, amplified by ongoing retail data demands in a post-cookie world—tying back to its core mission of blending physical and digital customer insights for lasting ecosystem impact.[1][7]
Key people at Zappedy.