Raise is a pioneer in the global gift card market and blockchain-powered payments and loyalty, founded in 2013 and operating from Miami. Its core products include a consumer app, an exchange (GCX), B2B 'Raise for Business', and a proprietary blockchain-backed gift card program called Smart Cards. The company reports it has facilitated over $5 billion in transactions for nearly 7 million users and more than 1,000 retail partnerships, with activation and redemption across a network of over one million stores, websites, and applications. Raise plans a nine-figure commitment over the next several years to realize on-chain gift cards, expand the Retail Alliance Foundation, and seed the Raise blockchain network and alliance IP in partnership with BFG Labs. It is integrating DOT Wallet via a partnership with the Polkadot Community Foundation, partnering with WalletConnect to connect to wallets such as Coinbase, MetaMask, Phantom, and Trust, and expanding B2B partnerships including Citi Bank and BILT Rewards. The company has also appointed a new board including Marco Santori, George Ruan, Matt Maloney, and Bjorn Wagner to support execution of its roadmap. Raise operates a mobile wallet and the world’s largest gift card marketplace, letting consumers buy discounted gift cards or sell unwanted cards for cash. Since launching in 2013, the company has amassed millions of users, enabled over $1 billion in gross transactions, and helped members save more than $140 million. Raise partners with nearly 400 national brands and offers consumers access to over 3,000 brands through its iOS and Android mobile wallet, where users save an average of 12% per transaction. The company’s core product is a digital gift-card marketplace and a closed-loop mobile payments network that gives brands direct-to-consumer prepaid payment capabilities. Raise plans to use new capital to accelerate development of its closed-loop mobile payments network, deepen its focus on prepaid cards, and build a world-class retail partnerships team. The company has raised more than $147 million to date. Raise.com runs a C2C marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of unused or partially used gift cards and collects a 15% commission on sales. Founded in 2013, Raise launched on the web and saw rapid growth after releasing an iOS mobile app just ahead of the 2014 holiday season; the app already contributes 20% of company revenue and accounts for over half of card listings. By November the service had grown over 500% since its Series A, and in 2014 the company sold over a million gift cards; between November and year-end Raise grew over 50% in revenue and other metrics while user growth quadrupled. CEO George Bousis said January was outpacing December in double-digit percentages, driven in part by mobile users purchasing at point-of-sale. Raise plans to use new funding to expand its executive, marketing and engineering teams (engineering to be about half the business), invest in R&D to improve speed and ease of use, and increase marketing spend across SEO, SEM, display and traditional media. Longer-term the company is developing services for retailers to leverage aggregate, anonymized shopper data and has signed deals with over a dozen undisclosed retailers interested in targeting customers via the app. Raise.com operates a peer-to-peer marketplace where consumers buy and sell discounted gift cards, e-gift cards and store credit across more than 500 retailers. Sellers can list physical cards, e-gift cards and merchandise credit with a $10 minimum balance; Raise.com collects a flat 15% commission on each sale and charges an extra $1 for physical-card transactions. Physical gift cards represent roughly 10% of sales, and the site provides prepaid shipping labels, seller payouts by check or PayPal, and a 100% money-back guarantee to buyers and sellers. Raise.com spun off from CouponTrade in February and began roughly 2.5 years ago; it has grown to over 50 full-time employees and the company is described as profitable. The business targets the large U.S. gift-card market (about $115 billion) and an additional $200 billion in merchandise credit from returns. Planned product improvements include a gift-card pricing tool and a scannable barcode for purchased cards; the company intends to use new funding to support growth, marketing, advertising and hiring.

Total raised

$197M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Feb 2025