Paribus

This article is about the American software company. For the Latin phrase, see Ceteris paribus.
Paribus
Subsidiary
Industry Technology
Software
Founded 2014
Founder Eric Glyman (CEO)
Karim Atiyeh (CTO)
Headquarters Brooklyn, NY
Area served
 Worldwide
Parent Capital One
Website www.paribus.co

Paribus is an American company and creator of the price tracking app of the same name, which syncs with a user's email account to scan for receipts and negotiates with online companies to refund the difference if there is a price drop shortly after a purchase.

History

Paribus was founded in 2014 by Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh.[1] The company is based in Brooklyn, New York.[1] The name is derived from the Latin phrase ceteris paribus, meaning "all others things being equal."[2]

Glyman built Paribus to simplify the process of receiving a refund following a price drop, which can be complicated to track and often go unclaimed. He and fellow Harvard University alumnus Atiyeh conceived of the idea and started working on the concept in the summer of 2013.[3][4] After launching in beta in September 2014,[3] the app launched publicly at TechCrunch Disrupt New York on May 5, 2015.[1][5] Paribus released its iOS app on August 6, 2015,[6] and its Android app on April 28, 2016.[7]

In October 2015, Paribus announced that it had raised $2.1 million in seed funding, following its participation in the Y Combinator summer program and Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt NY. The funding round was led by General Catalyst Partners, and also included Greylock Partners, Foundation Capital, Soma Capital and Mick Johnson, Facebook's former director of product.[8]

In October 2016, it was announced that Paribus had been acquired by Capital One.[9][10]

Software

Paribus connects to a user's email account to scan messages for receipts from e-commerce retailers.[11][12] The app tracks the user's purchases and, if an item goes on sale shortly after the purchase, Paribus contacts customer service departments in the user's name to file a price adjustment claim and request a refund of the difference.[13][14][15] It is also able to detect coupons or promo codes that could have been applied to a purchase, and have the coupon redeemed retroactively.[16][17] The app is free, with Paribus taking a 25% cut of any refund it negotiates.[18] It is available on the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and on Android smartphones and tablets.[19]

At its launch, the service worked with 18 major retailers, including Amazon.com, Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Macy's and Newegg.[8][20] The company states that the average user saves between $60 and $100 per year.[11] As of October 2016, it had over 700,000 users.[9]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Sarah Perez, "Paribus Can Save You Money When Online Prices Drop," TechCrunch, May 5, 2015.
  2. ↑ J. Money, "Paribus: The App That Gets Your Money Back," budgetsaresexy.com, May 13, 2015.
  3. 1 2 Jillian D'Onfro, "These 20-somethjings will help you get the rebates that online stores owe you," Business Insider, July 17, 2015.
  4. ↑ Rebecca Strong, "Harvard Grads' App Gets Your Money Back When Something You Bought Goes on Sale," BostInno, May 21, 2015.
  5. ↑ Rafe Needleman, "Free Money, of a Sort: Paribus Gets You Refunds You Didn’t Know You Had Coming," Yahoo! Tech, May 5, 2015.
  6. ↑ Casey Newton, "Paribus launches an app to fight against hidden price discrimination," The Verge, August 6, 2015.
  7. ↑ Nick Gray, "Paribus for Android pays you when something you bought gets a price drop," Phandroid, April 28, 2016.
  8. 1 2 Sarah Perez, "Paribus Raises $2.1 Million For Its Service That Saves Online Shoppers Money When Prices Drop," TechCrunch, October 7, 2015.
  9. 1 2 Sarah Perez, "Capital One acquires online price tracker Paribus," TechCrunch, October 6, 2016.
  10. ↑ Antony Peyton, "Capital One buys online price tracker Paribus," Banking Technology, October 10, 2016.
  11. 1 2 Lauren Zumbach, "Apps track emails, receipts to spot potential price-match refunds," Chicago Tribune, May 24, 2016.
  12. ↑ Janet Berry-Johnson, "Want To Save Money Shopping Online? There's An App For That," Forbes, March 21, 2016.
  13. ↑ Stefano Marra, "This Money-Saving App Bugs Retailers and Gets You Refunds," Wired, August 18, 2016.
  14. ↑ Rick Broida, "How to get price-drop refunds without even trying," CNet, May 25, 2016.
  15. ↑ Erin Barry, "Paribus looks into your email, but only to help save you cash," CNBC, February 28, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Paribus: The app that gets you price-drop refunds," WUSA, September 7, 2016.
  17. ↑ Erin Barry, "Start-up finds cash for online shoppers," CNBC, October 7, 2015.
  18. ↑ Doug Aamoth, "Free App Friday: Never, Ever Pay Full Price For Anything," Fast Company, December 4, 2015.
  19. ↑ Kristin Wong, "Paribus, the App that Automatically Refunds Price Drops, Comes to iPhone and Android," Lifehacker, April 27, 2016.
  20. ↑ Zach Epstein, "New free service automatically gets you money back when items you've already bought go on sale," Boy Genius Report, May 22, 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.