Paribus

Paribus was a service designed to help online shoppers get automatic refunds when prices dropped on items they had already purchased. The company was founded in 2014 by Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh, who reportedly met as undergraduates at Harvard. Their firsthand frustration with the cumbersome process of tracking price adjustments on their own online purchases served as the direct inspiration for the venture. They identified a common but often overlooked consumer protection: many retailers offer price guarantees, promising to refund the difference if an item's price falls within a specific period after purchase. However, manually tracking these price changes and filing claims is a tedious task that most consumers don't undertake.

The company developed a system that automated this entire process. Users would sign up and grant the service access to their email inboxes. Paribus's technology would then scan for purchase receipts from a list of supported online retailers. Upon identifying a purchase, the platform would continuously monitor the item's price on the retailer's website. If a price drop was detected within the eligible adjustment window, the service would automatically compose and send a claim email to the retailer on the user's behalf. This approach removed the friction for consumers, allowing them to save money without any active effort. The business model was initially based on taking a 25% commission from the refunds successfully secured for its users.

After participating in the Y Combinator accelerator program in the summer of 2015, Paribus gained significant traction. This momentum and its clever solution to a common consumer pain point led to its acquisition by Capital One in 2016 for an undisclosed amount. Following the acquisition, the service was rebranded as "Capital One Price Protection" and was offered as a free benefit to Capital One customers, dropping the commission-based model. However, in 2020, the service was discontinued. The founders, Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh, went on to establish another successful fintech company, Ramp. Keywords: price protection, automatic refunds, online shopping, consumer savings, e-commerce tool, price tracking, fintech, Y Combinator, Capital One, price adjustment