(Press Release) Verus Group, one of the largest start-up investment groups in Brazil, just closed an investment of R$800 thousand ($320 thousand) in Cuponeria, a tech company that allows large consumer brands to issue discount coupons, as well as shoppers to use them at brick-and-mortar retail stores, in electronic form.

Cuponeria allows the brands, through the use of internet and mobile technology, to distribute discount coupons without the need to physically print them at newspapers or other press media, thus eliminating the hassle of cutting the coupon and taking it to the store by the shoppers. The consumer brands, the retail stores and the shoppers get connected through Cuponeria’s technology, which allows for several different promotions in a fast and flexible way. Moreover, the company provides to the consumer brand and the retailer real time analytics, including coupon use and sales reports that show the promotion results while it is still under way.

“As we see it, Cuponeria gives a new and important dynamic to an old market – physical discount coupons, thus eliminating once and for all the use of paper and allowing up to the minute feedback about the promotion results to the consumer brands and retail stores. As to the shopper, getting access to great discounts without having to look for the coupons in the newspapers, cut them out and present them to the store is a big advantage” explains André Molinari, Verus Group’s representative.

Thiago Brandão, Cuponeria’s founder, states that “this investment by Verus Group brings to us not only the financial resources we need to invest in technology, business development and marketing, but also all the expertise and network of the group investors, all very senior and well connected.”

Cuponeria has among its shareholders Aceleratech, a local start-up accelerator where the company was accelerated, as well as Buscapé, a local internet investment by the South-African group Naspers.