Flubit seals deal with Barclays to create new digital marketplace for UK retailers

Online shopping platform Flubit, listed number 10 in the Startups 100 2014, has announced a major partnership with Barclays to offer a new retail service to the payment firm’s 35 million Barclaycard customers.

The service, set to launch later this year, will see Barclays incorporate Flubit’s platform into its ‘bespoke offers’ website, which currently has one million active users and 300,000 merchants, to provide its customers with private, personalised, prices for online UK retailers.

Launched in October 2012 by 2013 Growing Business Young Gun Bertie Stephens and Adel Louertatani, Tech City-based Flubit operates an invitation-only online marketplace where customers get bespoke prices on items they were planning to buy.

Users input the cheapest price they can find online for a product and Flubit then negotiates deals with smaller e-commerce sites for an “even better price”.

The tech start-up says the partnership with Barclays will benefit thousands of online merchants and offers “significant potential for success and growth”.

The deal coincides with the news that it has closed the first part of its Series A funding round, led by private equity firm Cocoon Wealth, at a valuation of almost $50m.

Flubit co-founder and CEO, Stephens, discussed the value of the Barclays partnership: “This groundbreaking deal will create a disruptive new e-commerce platform for online retailers.

“The combination of Flubit’s technology and Barclaycard’s market presence will create a force to be reckoned with.”

David Herrick, managing director of Barclaycard Digital Marketplace, continued:

“Flubit is one of the most exciting new companies in the e-commerce space right now and its technology will allow us to build on what we have already created at bespoke offers to give all UK consumers personalised offers and create significant sales opportunities for UK e-tailers.”