US-based online gift card marketplace Raise secured $60m in series C round funding from payment processor PayPal and venture capital firms Accel, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Bessemer Venture Partners yesterday.
Founded in 2011 as CouponTrade, Raise operates a platform that enables users to sell their unwanted gift cards or buy discounted cards from other consumers. Customers can then directly purchase products from more than 3,000 brands through the same mobile app.
Retailers can meanwhile gain an insight into shopping behaviour, and are able to directly sell their own gift cards as well.
The series C money will go toward accelerated development of Raise’s closed loop marketplace and identifying opportunities for the prepaid cards market. The company also hopes to attract more retailers to its platform.
Sameer Gandhi, a partner at Accel, and Mark Tebbe, a serial entrepreneur and adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, will join Raise’s board of directors in conjunction with the round.
Raise has processed more than $1bn in gross transactions to date and formed partnerships with close to 400 retailers to handle the digital distribution of their gift cards.
The company has now raised more than $147m in total funding, most recently collecting $56m in a 2015 series B round led by NEA with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Pritzker Organization, Listen Ventures and assorted angel investors.
George Bousis, founder and CEO of Raise, said: “We are thrilled to announce this latest fundraise and are privileged to work with such talented individuals as Sameer and Mark.
“With their expansive experience in payments, technology and e-commerce, they bring a tremendous amount of value to our board and our business.”