Honey (company)

Honey Science Corp., headquartered in Los Angeles, California, operates a browser extension that aggregates and automatically applies online coupons on eCommerce websites. It is a subsidiary of PayPal. Honey's revenue comes from a commission made on user transactions with partnering retailers. When a member makes a purchase from select merchants, Honey shares part of their commission with the member in a cashback program. Users are notified of price drops and price history on selected items sold by participating online stores. Its browser extension is available on Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Microsoft Edge.
History.
Entrepreneurs Ryan Hudson and George Ruan founded Honey in November 2012 in Los Angeles, California, after building a prototype of the browser extension in late October 2012. A bug tester leaked the tool to Reddit, where it went viral. By March 2014, the company had 900,000 organic users.
Financing history.
In 2014, Honey raised $1.8 million in seed money, followed by a $4 million Series A round in 2016. By October 2017, Honey raised a $9 million Series B round. Honey raised a $26 million Series C round, led by Anthos Capital in March 2017. By January 2018, Honey raised a total of $40.8 million in venture backing. On January 6, 2020, it was acquired by PayPal for about $4 billion.
Marketing.
Honey has become known for its heavy use of YouTube advertising and channel sponsorships for their marketing. Similarly to NordVPN and Amazon's Audible, it offers paid sponsorships to popular YouTube channels such as MrBeast to expose the service to their viewers. In 2020, Honey launched a web series called "Honey Originals", where Honey partners were interviewed, including segments "20 Questions with _" and "Add To Cart with _".