Rakuten’s Ebates Brings Shopular On Board

In the world of mobile commerce, it’s not just about what you can do but who you know. Down the line, the smallest partnership can pay big dividends, and Ebates is banking on just that.

Ebates, the Rakuten subsidiary focused on cash-back shopping, announced Thursday (March 24) that it had acquired mobile coupon and item discovery app Shopular. Based in Redwood City, California, Shopular will share its proprietary location-targeted alerts with Ebates’ users — just as Ebates will extend access to its running-tally cash-back program for online shoppers.

Ebates CEO Kevin Johnson explained that the acquisition couldn’t be closer to a match made in mobile commerce heaven.

“Shopular is the perfect partner to help us maximize our growth in the online and mobile commerce category,” Johnson said in a statement. “With today’s consumers going mobile, it’s more important than ever to provide the right technologies to help them get the best deals, at the right time, as quickly as possible. We believe that the addition of Shopular to the Ebates family is the next step to making this happen.”

Not to be left out of the fun, Shopular Cofounder and General Manager Navneet Loiwal — who, along with Cofounder Tommy Tsai, will remain at the company as GMs — touted both organizations’ increased capabilities as a result of the deal.

“Ebates is the leader in online cash-back shopping and is widely used by consumers of all demographics,” Loiwal said. “We have always felt that joining the attractive Shopular product discovery experience with the trustworthiness of Ebates cash-back shopping would be a winning combination. We are very excited about being able to leverage Ebates’ significant resources to deliver an even better experience to our users.”

The acquisition looks to be picture perfect for both sides on paper, but can they turn their mutual compatibility into shared profitability?