Rewards and incentives are considered one of the most effective ways to encourage workers to put forth great efforts and work efficiently. Every year over $620 billion (approx £462 billion) of gift cards is issued globally, with half of this value being purchased by corporates to reward or incentivise their employees or customers. This market is growing strongly and is expected to reach $1.9 trillion (approx £1.4 billion) by 2027.
Sending rewards, incentives, and non-cash payouts are manual, expensive, time-consuming, and error-prone. And this is where London-based WeGift comes and changes the broken process. WeGift is a cloud-based, open API solution that allows businesses to transfer value to consumers in real-time and globally.
Raised £6.7M Series A round
Recently, the digital incentives platform raised $8 million (approx £6.7 million) in a Series A extension led by AlbionVC. Existing investors including Stride.vc, SAP.iO fund and Unilever Ventures also participated in the round. Following the fundraise, Ed Lascelles, General Partner at AlbionVC, will join WeGift’s Board of Directors.
Founder and CEO Aron Alexander commented: “Historically businesses had to spend thousands of hours a year manually buying and distributing digital rewards. WeGift helps companies intelligently automate this process to power new customer acquisition and retention campaigns. We give them instant access to a huge choice of rewards and payouts, an ever-growing network of more than 700 brand partners, across 30 markets and 20 currencies. We are disrupting a broken market on a global scale, and this investment, together with our partnerships with Albion VC, Unilever Ventures, SAP.iO Fund, and Stride. vc, is an instrumental step forward in achieving our vision.”
How will the funding be used?
The proceeding will help the company to create the world’s first real-time infrastructure for digital rewards and incentives. The funds will be used to continue WeGift’s investment in building its supply chain through direct integrations with brands, and product development that serves corporate marketing teams looking to acquire, activate, and retain customers at scale.
Transforming incentive and reward industry
Founded by Aron Alexander in 2016, WeGift is transforming the incentive and reward industry. Through a single API, which is simple and quick to integrate with (like Stripe), corporates can access +700 brands (eg. Amazon, John Lewis, Nike, Uber, Starbucks) globally (+30 countries currently).
The company also enables corporates to get discounts, no longer hold inventory, automate ordering, delivery, and invoicing while providing a better experience for end consumers.
Further, the UK digital incentive platform provides companies with powerful analytics on their incentive marketing campaigns, enabling them to better understand their customers and build stronger relationships.
Ed Lascalles, Partner at AlbionVC commented: “The gifting and incentives market is enormous but is still largely based on 20th-century infrastructure. WeGift’s real-time, API-first platform transforms the user experience, underpinning exceptional growth even in this difficult economic climate. We are delighted to support Aron and his team as they build on their early success.”
Fred Destin, Founder Stride.VC commented: “WeGift has built the best product in this market, assembled a fantastic, highly diverse team, and is building a strong, sustainable business around digital incentives, branded currencies, and the brave new world of digital payouts. This is just the start. Delighted to be backing this team again.”
WeGift Customer – Vodafone, Head of Affiliates, Cai Mullins commented: “WeGift’s Incentive Marketing platform has unlocked a world of possibilities for Vodafone and were exactly what we needed to drive new revenue.”
Operates in more than 30 countries
Currently, WeGift operates in more than 30 countries in 22 languages, 20 currencies, with over 700 brand partners, and hundreds of clients, like Vodafone, Samsung, Vouchercodes, Perkbox, and Sodexo, among others.