Bank Innovation’s First Investment — in Giftly — Scores as the Startup Finds a Buyer
Barely a month ago, Bank Innovation began investing in FinTech startups. Yesterday, our first investment, in Giftly, exited in a sale to GiftCards.com.
We didn’t even have a chance to announce that we made the investment before CEO Tim Bentley and company sold out to GiftCards for an undisclosed price.
Giftly launched in March 2011, and unveiled its website in September of that year. Its mobile app, which is the real strength of Giftly, was launched last September.
As of last month, the Giftly app had been downloaded around 50,000 times.
The company has raised $2.8 million to date.
Bank Innovation will be making up to 10 investments at a time in FinTech startups. We are looking for startups that:
- Solve a big problem;
- Possess an exceptional strategy for solving that problem;
- Are helmed by a strong management team;
- Have a financial services focus; and
- Are targeting an area/sector/market with manageable competition.
Giftly fit those criteria. Giftly allows users to easily gift anything, not just a particular product (like a Starbucks coffee from the Starbucks app) or a generalized credit (like an Amazon gift card). While we think the redemption process can be better, it’s still a great app. The opportunity is big for Giftly, which is run by Tim, a former Goldman Sachs banker, since the gift card industry is a $100 billion market. We haven’t seen anything quite like Giftly to date.
GiftCards.com — it’s all yours.
