FeeFighters

Type of site

| payment
Available in| English
Founder(s)|

* Sean Harper
* Josh Krall
* Stella Fayman
* Sheel Mohnot

URL| www.feefighters.com
Commercial| Yes
Launched| 2009
Current status| Active

FeeFighters is a payment processing platform and comparison shopping website for credit card processors. The site was launched in 2009[1] and was acquired by Groupon in 2012.[2] FeeFighters has been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur (magazine), Inc. (magazine) and TechCrunch, with BusinessWeek profiling it as "One of America's Most Promising Startups."[3][4][5][6]

## History

[edit]

FeeFighters started out as a comparison shopping site for credit card processors and eventually launched its own payment processing platform,[7] Samurai, to facilitate payment integration for software developers, achieve PCI compliance and reduce credit card processing fees.[8]

FeeFighters raised $1.6 million in funding from investors including 500 Startups, Hyde Park Angels, OCA Ventures and Sandbox Industries.[9]

## Controversy

[edit]

In 2011, FeeFighters wrote a negative blog article claiming that a company bumped its rating from an "F" to an "A" by paying the Better Business Bureau.[10] The controversy was covered by The Today Show.[11] As a result, the BBB pulled the company's accreditation.[12] The BBB later admitted the pay-for-ratings incident.[13]

## Acquisition

[edit]

In 2012, FeeFighters was acquired by Groupon. The company became part of Groupon's Merchant Operating System strategy which was designed to provide payment processing and online scheduling.[14]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ About
2. ^ "Groupon Acquires FeeFighters, The BillShrink For Business Services". TechCrunch. 23 March 2012. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
3. ^ Mandelbaum, Robb. In Battling Merchants, Banks Still Hope to Overturn Durbin Rules. "New York Times". October 18, 2011
4. ^ Greenstein, Howard. Fight Credit Card Processing Fees. Inc.. May 25, 2011.
5. ^ Tozzi, John. America's Most Promising Startups. BusinessWeek. Feb. 4, 2011
6. ^ Parrish, Leni. Credit Card Comparison Service FeeFighters Bought By Groupon. CreditCardFlyers. March. 27, 2012
7. ^ "FeeFighters Launches Payment Gateway Samurai". TechCrunch. 23 September 2011. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
8. ^ Chapman, Glenn. How to Cut Transaction Costs on Customer Purchases. Entrepreneur. May 20, 2011.
9. ^ "Chicago's FeeFighters raises $1.6 mil". Crain's Chicago Business. 2011-01-13. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
10. ^ "The BBB is a F*&#ing Scam - FeeFighters". 2019-03-17. Archived from the original on 2019-03-17. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
11. ^ "Better Business Bureau ratings draw flak - Money - TODAY.com". NBC News. 2011-12-31. Archived from the original on 2011-12-31. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
12. ^ Tue, Sep 20th 2011 11:45am-Mike Masnick (20 September 2011). "Criticize The Better Business Bureau... And They'll Pull Your Accreditation". Techdirt. Retrieved 2019-10-07.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
13. ^ A. O. L. Staff (15 July 2016). "Better Business Bureau Admits Mistakes Were Made on Pay-For-Ratings Issue". AOL.com. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
14. ^ "Groupon buys FeeFighters to support merchant community". VentureBeat. 2012-03-23. Retrieved 2019-10-07.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website