Area served United States Website www.raise.com Founder George Bousis Founded 2010 | Industry eCommerce Launched 2013 Headquarters Chicago Type of business Privately Owned | |
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Raise.com is a gift card buyback company, based out of Chicago, IL and launched in 2013 by George Bousis.
Contents
History
Raise.com was initially conceived as a spinoff of another service created by Bousis and Bradley Wasz, called CouponTrade, which was founded in 2010.
In that time, the marketplace became of more friendly place to Bousis's idea. As stated by Crain's Chicago Business column, "a 2009 federal law prevented gift cards from expiring for five years; cards went from a magnetic stripe to all-digital in 2010; and advances in mobile technology made it possible to buy and sell cards on a smartphone."
Founded in 2013, Raise.com received $18M in Series A funding from Bessemer Venture Funding. A second round of funding in 2015 saw $56M in Series B funding from New Enterprise Associates.
In August 2015, Raise.com acquired Tastebud Technologies for an undisclosed amount, with the CEO of Tastebud Technologies, Tyler Spalding, taking the Chief Strategy Officer role within Raise.com.
In June 2016, Raise acquired Slide for an undisclosed amount in stock, a company which allows you to store your gift cards in your digital wallet/Passbook. Raise also announce plans to open a New York office.
As of 2016, the company is valued at about $1B, as presented by the New York Times.
Business Model
For every transaction, Raise.com takes a 15% cut of the sale.
In the period between funding - in 2014, Raise.com released a mobile app (iOS only) version of it’s marketplace.
Raise.com also has partnerships with “over a dozen undisclosed retailers so far who are interested in the sorts consumer shopping insights Raise can provide.”
Raise also has a one-year money back guarantee on purchases made directly through the marketplace.
Gift Card Fraud
There have been users of Raise.com who have experienced gift card fraud, typically executed by people who steal items under the return receipt requirements of stores and then requesting gift cards. Generally, customer service with Raise.com when people have received fraudulent gift cards receives minimal complaints and people usually receive a 100%+ refund within the grace period. As AdvisoryHQ states, "Many of the negative Raise reviews on this review site are from buyers who waited until after Raise’s 100-day money back guarantee had expired before trying to use their gift card – only to discover that the card was invalid or had a different value than expected."
While Raise has not publicly commented on this, their terms of service state that any user who attempts to sell an “invalid card” will be subjected to a sale price reversal and may be liable for the 15% sales commission. Additionally, the account holder may be charged a “card refund fee” in the greater amount - $20 or 15% of the gift card sale price.