Dive Brief:

• Raise, the digital gift card and blockchain payments company, has closed a $63 million funding round, bringing the total amount by the Miami-based app company to about $220 million, according to a press release. 
• The company will use the funds to develop its proprietary blockchain-backed gift card program and bolster the Retail Alliance Foundation, its nonprofit coalition of retailers and consumer goods companies aiming to create a secure gift card network, per the Tuesday press release.
• The roster of Raise’s investors in the most recent fundraising round signal the company’s growing popularity with crypto heavyweights. While Haun Ventures led the funding round, other crypto-centric investors, including the Web3 Foundation, Borderless Capital and Amber Group, also participated in the round, per the announcement. 

Dive Insight:

Alongside the funding news, Raise appointed new members to its board of directors: Marco Santori, former chief legal officer at Kraken Digital Asset Exchange and former president of Blockchain.com; George Ruan, former CEO of shopping tool firm Honey, which was acquired by PayPal; dining delivery company Grubhub founder Matt Maloney; and Björn Wagner, CEO of blockchain business Parity Technologies.

Since its founding in 2013, the company has partnered with some 1,000 retailers and facilitated about $5 billion inbound transactions for its nearly 7 million users, according to the release. Some of the brands it works with are DoorDash, Uber and Lowe’s, according to its website.The Raise app is integrated with some digital wallets, including Coinbase and MetaMask.

In addition to its app for consumers, the company also offers digital services to businesses to facilitate their loyalty programs and payments processing. On that front, it has partnered with financial institutions, including Citibank. 

“For over a decade, we've invested tens of millions of dollars in bringing gift cards and loyalty programs on-chain,” Raise CEO and founder George Bousis said in the release. “Now, we’re making a nine-figure commitment over the next several years to fully realize this vision.”

Bousis said that outlook was possible because government regulators have turned a corner in their approach to oversight, an apparent reference to President Donald Trump’s early support for crypto and digital assets two months into his new administration. Trump issued an executive order last month that largely embraced the digital asset industry, particularly blockchain technology.

“Having been involved in blockchain and crypto since its early days, we waited for the right regulatory framework and the technological maturity to support a fully reconfigured, on-chain gift card industry,” Bousis said in the release. “That time is now – the barriers that once existed are no longer obstacles.”

With its new capital infusion, Raise aims to capitalize on the growth of the gift card market.

Prior investors in Raise include digital payments company PayPal and tech venture capital firms Accel and New Enterprise Associates.

Meanwhile, a November report from banking and card issuer giant Capital One predicts that the worldwide gift card market will reach $3.09 trillion by 2030.

Raise has capitalized on the growing demand by expanding into other markets. Last November, the company launched the Raise App in the U.K., enabling users to redeem their “Raise Cash” rewards for any gift card purchase, according to a press release. Later that month, the company also introduced the app in Canada and extended its API tool to Canadian businesses, per another press release.