Raise Raises $63 Million to Advance Blockchain-Based Smart Cards
Raise, a Chicago-based gift card trading platform, has raised $63 million in a new round of funding led by Haun Ventures, with support from PayPal. The investment will help the company expand its blockchain-powered Smart Card system, which aims to enhance the security and programmability of gift cards, thereby reducing fraud and improving the user experience.
Shaping the Future of Gift Cards with Blockchain
The funding round, which includes participation from Accel, New Enterprise Associates and others, brings the total capital Raise has raised to more than $220 million. Raise said the capital will help the company enhance the security of gift cards through blockchain technology, and deploy smart contracts to set flexible conditions for card use.
Raise’s Smart Card system will convert traditional gift cards into blockchain tokens, ensuring that every transaction is recorded on an immutable ledger. According to CEO George Bousis, the technology solves long-standing challenges in the gift card industry such as the risk of counterfeiting and the problem of interoperability between different systems. At the same time, it allows retailers to encode incentives such as loyalty points or expiry dates directly onto gift cards via smart contracts.
Establishing a global blockchain standard for gift cards
A portion of the funds raised will be used to fund the Retail Alliance Foundation – a non-profit alliance in partnership with Raise’s subsidiary BFG Labs. The initiative aims to establish common blockchain standards for gift cards, helping to unify retail brands into a single ecosystem, ensuring greater compatibility and security across platforms.
Bousis emphasized that gift cards are not just a payment tool, but can also become a programmable “retail currency” that can help businesses increase customer loyalty. This is in line with the growing trend of the global gift card market, which is expected to exceed $2.3 trillion by 2030.
Expanding the Web3 ecosystem for payments and loyalty
While the adoption of blockchain in the gift card space may face some regulatory hurdles, Raise is partnering with companies like Walletconnect and Polkadot to simplify the integration process. The company aims to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years to expand its ecosystem, making Smart Cards the leading payment and loyalty management tool in the Web3 era.
