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Chicago-based social buying website Groupon is now valued at more than $1 billion, joining social networks Facebook and Twitter and online gaming company Zynga in an elite clup of web 2.0 startups to surpass the $1 billion threshold. 
The site acquired more than $135 million in venture capital funding from Digital Sky Technologies (DST) and Battery Ventures, according a statement released by the company on Monday.
“Our Growth is a reflection of the positive impact Groupon is having on consumers and businesses at a very early stage of the market development,” said Andrew Mason, founder and CEO of Groupon, in a press release. “We are very pleased and excited to welcome DST and Battery as shareholders and we look forward to benefiting from their vast knowledge and experience of the social media sector as we continue executing on our growth plans in North America and globally.”
Groupon provides an online marketplace that allows users get bulk discounts on goods from local businesses in 50 cities in the U.S. and Canada. residents in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa and Washinton DC get access to volume group coupon rates from local business offering cheap products and services. Users can get deals on anything from whale watching to massages to theater tickets to restaurants.
Orlando, Tucson, and Toronto are the most recent additions to the Groupon line up. For residents living in and around those cities it is now possible to enjoy the collective buying power Groupon offers.
Groupon Launched in November 2008. The site is a project of The Point, an online community launched in 2007 for organizing group action. Groupon plans to be 100 cities by the end of 2010, according to a company press release.
