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Raise, the online gift card marketplace, closed an $18.1 million round this week. Although the funding was not officially announced by the company, CEO and founder George Bousis confirmed the funding with Built In Chicago and added:
"We're just really excited about the opportunity and the entire gift card market,” Bousis said. “This wouldn't have been possible had it not been for the talented team that I have. Their countless efforts, time and sacrifices are why we are here. I'm blessed to have them and fortunate to have been raised in a great city like Chicago and remain a Chicago company.”
Raise has even called Chicago home since before it was founded in February because it was born out of another Chicago-based company, CouponTrade, which was also founded by Bousis. Since then, the company has grown to about 50 employees, making it one of Chicago’s fastest-growing digital companies.
This fast growth is proof that Raise is solving a pressing problem that the gift card industry (an industry which had $110 billion worth of sales in 2012 alone) continues to experience: about 20 percent of gift cards go unused each year. To solve the dilemma, Raise went straight to consumers, providing them a platform to buy and sell gift cards at a discount.
Although the investors behind this week’s Series A funding were not named, Raise does enjoy the support of prominent players in the Chicago tech community: Jason Pritker (of Yapmo) and Jeff Cantalupo (of Listen LLC) both sit on Raise’s Board of Directors. Bousis said he hopes to reciprocate this continuous encouragement from the startup community going into 2014: “We look forward to continuing the growth and hiring other talented, hard-working and proud members of the Chicago tech community."
