Feefighters

FeeFighters is a payment processing platform and comparison shopping website for credit card processors. The site was launched in 2009[1] and acquired by Groupon in 2012.[2] FeeFighters has been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur (magazine), Inc. (magazine) and TechCrunch, with BusinessWeek profiling it as "One of America's Most Promising Startups."[3][4][5][6]

FeeFighters
Type of site
payment
Available inEnglish
Founder(s)
  • Sean Harper
  • Josh Krall
  • Stella Fayman
  • Sheel Mohnot
URLwww.feefighters.com
CommercialYes
Launched2009
Current statusActive

History

FeeFighters started out as a comparison shopping site for credit card processors and eventually launched its own payment processing platform[7], Samurai, to facilitate payment integration for software developers, achieve PCI compliance and reduce credit card processing fees.[8]

FeeFighters raised $1.6 million in funding from investors including 500 Startups, Hyde Park Angels, OCA Ventures and Sandbox Industries.[9]

Controversy

In 2011, FeeFighters wrote a negative blog article claiming that a company bumped its rating from an "F" to an "A" by paying the Better Business Bureau.[10] The controversy was covered by The Today Show.[11] As a result, the BBB pulled the company's accreditation.[12] The BBB later admitted the pay-for-ratings incident.[13]

Acquisition

In 2012, FeeFighters was acquired by Groupon. The company became part of Groupon's Merchant Operating System strategy which was designed to provide payment processing and online scheduling.[14]

References
  1. About
  2. "Groupon Acquires FeeFighters, The BillShrink For Business Services". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  3. Mandelbaum, Robb. In Battling Merchants, Banks Still Hope to Overturn Durbin Rules. "New York Times". October 18, 2011
  4. Greenstein, Howard. Fight Credit Card Processing Fees. Inc.. May 25, 2011.
  5. Tozzi, John. America's Most Promising Startups. BusinessWeek. Feb. 4, 2011
  6. Parrish, Leni. Credit Card Comparison Service FeeFighters Bought By Groupon. CreditCardFlyers. March. 27, 2012
  7. "FeeFighters Launches Payment Gateway Samurai". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  8. Chapman, Glenn. How to Cut Transaction Costs on Customer Purchases. Entrepreneur. May 20, 2011.
  9. "Chicago's FeeFighters raises $1.6 mil". Crain's Chicago Business. 2011-01-13. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  10. "The BBB is a F*&#ing Scam - FeeFighters". 2019-03-17. Archived from the original on 2019-03-17. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  11. "Better Business Bureau ratings draw flak - Money - TODAY.com". 2011-12-31. Archived from the original on 2011-12-31. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  12. Tue, Sep 20th 2011 11:45am-Mike Masnick. "Criticize The Better Business Bureau... And They'll Pull Your Accreditation". Techdirt. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  13. Staff, A. O. L. "Better Business Bureau Admits Mistakes Were Made on Pay-For-Ratings Issue". AOL.com. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  14. "Groupon buys FeeFighters to support merchant community". VentureBeat. 2012-03-23. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
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