Yiftee Raises $2.1 Million Series A, Launches YifteePro Business Gifting Service That Builds Community
Menlo Park, CA (PRWEB) January 28, 2014 -- Yiftee, an award-winning web/mobile service for sending gifts at local shops and restaurants throughout the USA, announced today that it has completed its Series A funding round of $2.1 million. The round is led by Dr. Peter Fitzgerald/TransPacific Ventures who will join the Board and includes Intuit co-founder Scott Cook, Beverly Hills businessman Burt Sugarman with his wife TV personality Mary Hart, Asset Management Company (Franklin “Pitch” Johnson), Jillian Manus/Broad Strategy Fund and Michael J. Levinthal. The round adds to a $1.0M seed round raised in 2012.
“Our investors are our partners and there couldn’t be a better team to help us scale up. People “get” Yiftee in a snap – who wouldn’t want to send thoughtful gifts at a favorite bakery or boutique to recognize a job well done or differentiate their business to customers and prospects. We spent a year digging deep on what customers want, and this funding goes straight towards sales and marketing to realize our billion dollar opportunity,” remarked Donna Novitsky, Yiftee CEO and Co-Founder.
Coincident with the funding, Yiftee is announcing YifteePro, a web service (pro.yiftee.com) that simplifies gifting for professionals, businesses, or people with long lists of friends/family to whom they want to send gifts. YifteePro allows people to upload a list of employees, customers, clients, partners, patients, prospects, etc., choose a gift from many local merchants and national brands, personalize as they wish, and send. The recipient immediately gets the gift message and can redeem the gift at a merchant local to them anytime in the next 90 days.
YifteePro connects businesses and professionals with their local communities and the merchants who make a living there. There is no cost for merchants to offer gifts via Yiftee, no technology required, no discounting and it brings new customers into their shops and restaurants. Local business owners can sign up in less than five minutes here for free.
Using YifteePro for business gifting has certain advantages over plastic gift cards and other promotions. First, there is no waste. If the recipient does not redeem his/her Yiftee in 90 days, the value is returned to the gift giver. Second, YifteePro saves time with personalized group gifting. Third, gift givers get real-time results including many delighted “thank yous!”
“At Zendesk (a leading cloud-based customer service software provider) we like to reward our employees and support our neighborhood, which is the Tenderloin in San Francisco. We give Yiftees at our Friday All Hands meetings – ranging from a simple latte to an elaborate night out on the town. It’s a fun way to support our hard-working employees and our local community all at once!” said Anne Raimondi, Zendesk VP People Ops.
About Yiftee™, Local Gifts, On-the-Go
Yiftee (yiftee.com) is an exciting new mobile app, web service and API (Application Programming Interface) that lets consumers and businesses send thoughtful, unexpected gifts to friends, family and colleagues quickly via email, text and Facebook®. Recipients pick up their Yiftee gifts using their smart phones at their favorite local restaurants and shops, driving profitable business to those merchants. Merchants gain additional sales, foot traffic, an eGifting capability like the big retailers and a free mobile/web sales channel. YifteePro is a free web service (pro.yiftee.com) streamlined for gifting to groups. Yiftee makes money with a convenience fee that is added to the gift value when the gift is sent. Please visit yiftee.com or pro.yiftee.com to give your gifts and spread the Yiftee love.
Melanie Anderson, Pitch Public Relations, http://www.pitchpublicrelations.com/, 480.225.7148, [email protected]
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