Fintech company Blackhawk Network has acquired CashStar, a US-based digital gift card service backed by semiconductor technology producer Intel, for approximately $175m in an all-cash transaction.
CashStar will become part of Blackhawk’s digital and incentives businesses. Ben Caplan, chief executive and president of CashStar, will continue to manage the company and will report to David Jones, general manager of digital and incentives at Blackhawk.
CashStar has developed a platform that allows customers to purchase personalised digital and physical gift cards. Retailers can use the service to manage gift voucher-based promotions and marketing efforts.
The company was founded in 2009 by consumer printed coupons provider Coupons.com. Since then, it had raised $50m in funding.
Intel Capital, the corporate venturing subsidiary of Intel, previously participated in a $15m series D round in 2015 led by growth equity firm FTV Capital. The series D included Mosaik Partners, Passport Capital, North Hill Ventures and a range of existing, unnamed backers.
Intel Capital earlier took part in a $5m funding round in 2012 alongside Passport, FTV and Steven Boal, co-founder of CashStar.
Ben Kaplan said: “Joining forces with Blackhawk will help us deliver even more powerful capabilities and new revenue opportunities for our clients and partners.
“Together, we can provide merchants with unified end-to-end solutions for business-to-business and business-to-consumer gift card distribution.
“The combination of our platform and Blackhawk’s product breadth and global reach creates innovative new applications for branded value and mobile payments. We could not be more excited.”