According to a recent announcement by the Washington-based group-buying service firm LivingSocial, $25 million in venture capital funding have been raised by the company, in its second funding round led by Menlo Park, California-based US Venture Partners.

The new funding round also witnessed the participation of Grotech Ventures and AOL founder Steve Case’s Revolution LLC. Earlier in 2008, Grotech Ventures, Steve Case and his wife, Jean, had invested $5 million in LivingSocial’s first funding round, to help the company take off.

LivingSocial, which develops various social apps, has recently introduced its group-buying service - LivingSocial Deals – that informs the subscribers about day-to-day local deals on a particular restaurant, hotel, event or retailer. The information is sent via e-mail and Facebook, and the deals materialize only after a group of people gives their consent for buying a product.

The new funding raised by LivingSocial comes at a time when the group-buying concept has caught the eye of the investors – while the group-buying biggie Groupon raised $30 million in December; BuyWithMe raised $5.5 million in a first round in late January.

Meanwhile, going by the information forwarded by LivingSocial, the new funding will partly be used for the expansion of the group-buying service to nearly 13 markets round the country – including Denver, Chicago, San Diego, and North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham region.