Groupon snatches up local-data startup Hyperpublic for better deal targeting

In what could be the deal of the year, Groupon has snatched up a little-known startup to help it do the dirty work of targeting deals to subscribers.

The newly public deals behemoth has bought two-year-old, New York-based Hyperpublic for an undisclosed sum, the companies announced Friday. Hyperpublic aggregates place and deal data and provides developers with a way to monetize their applications. More attractive to Groupon, however, is the company’s growing pool of data that connects people to places.

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“We set out to change the way people interacted with the local environment, and are pumped to continue that mission as a part of one of the fastest growing and most disruptive companies in the world,” Hyperpublic said in a note posted to its website Friday.

Hyperpublic amasses publicly available local data, gathered from a variety of sources such as social networks, and spits that data back out to developers who want specialized local data. The startup’s Data on Demand product, for instance, purports to give developers access to whatever local data they desire.

“We have everything. Need Twitter handles of vegans in the East Village? Done. Millions of display ads referencing places in Chicago? Done,” the product description explains.

Hyperpublic co-founder Jordan Cooper insinuated in an interview with the New York Times Bits blog that this type of data is of especial interest to Groupon. While Cooper was unable to go into great detail about HyperPublic’s future, he did say that Groupon, like most companies these days, is trying to mine publicly available social data and relate that data to real-world commercial decisions.

“The better Groupon understands the people and local environment that they are trying to drive traffic to, the better they will do,” Cooper said.

Hyperpublic previously raised $1.15 million in seed funding.