The recent acquisition by InComm will enable Giftango to expand the options available to its channel partners, according to Mike Fletcher, senior vice president of sales and marketing of Giftango, which now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of InComm.
The acquisition itself was announced on the final day of 2012. Giftango hadn’t been looking to be acquired, but instead was looking through some offers for Series C funding when the opportunity to sell the company to InComm presented itself, Fletcher told Loyalty 360. “We felt it was a good alignment of opportunities in the marketplace. The deal came together very quickly.”
By becoming a wholly owned subsidiary, Giftango has been able to expand its staff in its home base of Portland and nationally, and will continue to grow nationally, according to Fletcher.
“InComm has a fantastic portfolio of content, with mobile carrier products open look cards and video game cards. We have the offerings on the gift card side,” Fletcher added.
“This acquisition opens doors to new and meaningful distribution channels for InComm merchants and product partners. Giftango is the digital gifting technology behind very large loyalty, incentive and mobile platforms in the US market and has made inroads internationally as well,” said Brooks Smith, InComm president and CEO, when the deal was announced. “This also adds proven B2B, ecommerce and promotional toolsets to the portfolio of InComm products.”
InComm, headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., supports more than 400,000 points of distribution and helps retailers build prepaid card destinations, connects brands with new markets and gives consumers a simple, secure shopping experience.
Founded in 2005, Giftango entered digital gifting by providing turnkey solutions to help merchants sell gift cards from their Web sites. The company created solutions to help streamline processes for fulfillment, customer service and management of gift cards between leading merchants and their largest gift card purchasing partners. Today, more than 150 leading brands deliver digital gift cards through Giftango's network of more than 80 partners.
An estimated 8 million virtual gift cards were sold during the holiday season, according to estimates from Mercator Advisory Group. Giftango finds that as many as 80 percent of consumers select digital delivery when the option is presented alongside a plastic version of the same card in a loyalty program.
“The combination of our two companies brings together the cutting-edge digital ingenuity of a startup with an established leader in the prepaid space, creating a complete prepaid solution for all market participants that is unmatched,” said David Nelsen, Giftango CEO, when the deal was announced. “Coming together allows us to extend digital prepaid functionality that is necessary for mobile wallets, incentive and loyalty distribution, financial institutions and the new mobile payments ecosystem.”