Global Savings Group Closes €123.5M Deal To Buy iGraal

Germany’s eCommerce site Global Savings Group (GSG) has struck a €123.5 million deal with French media company M6 Group to acquire its subsidiary iGraal, France’s largest cashback firm.

The transaction includes €35 million in cash and the rest in an exchange of shares, GSG announced in a statement on Monday (March 23).

“In 2019, GSG and iGraal jointly saw more than six million members using its loyalty tools and connected advertisers to around 400 million consumers,” GSG said. “The deal makes GSG the largest rewards, savings and shopping content platform in Europe.”

Headquartered in Munich and founded in 2012 by Adrian Renner, Andreas Fruth and Gerhard Trautmann, GSG aims to change the way people buy goods online, while also transforming how merchants sell and digital content producers earn.

“The acquisition of iGraal is another significant step on our way toward a new European champion,” said Gerhard Trautmann, co-founder and CEO of GSG. “Our various consumer models enable us to reach millions of shoppers worldwide and help them to make smarter purchasing decisions. Together with our publishing partners, our holistic product offering can satisfy an even greater amount of consumers in their shopping journey.”

The transaction is one of the biggest in the cashback space in several years, the company said.

By offering relative content related to shopping in connection with cashback and other rewards, GSG has attracted thousands of new users along with intelligence about people’s shopping patterns.

iGraal and GSG plan to work together to introduce their cashback platform to additional European markets. GSG said it anticipates profitability this year.

GSG has raised $54.3 million in funding to date in six funding rounds. iGraal is its third acquisition.

Last month, FIS and PayPal expanded their partnership to give cardholders of institutions participating in the FIS Premium Payback network the ability to use reward points to buy goods from PayPal merchants worldwide.