The social marketing company continues to grow with new brands and strategic investors important to its mobile efforts. June 13, 2013 5:11 AM PDT (Credit: Wrapp) Wrapp, the company that lets Facebook friends send digital gift cards to each other, has picked up strategic new investors from the mobile manufacturing and mobile payments industry who are pouring another $15 million into the company. The money is going toward the development of the app's latest feature, brand pages. Users can now follow a brand for special deals for themselves. "The whole idea with Wrapp is to build a win-win relationship between consumers and retailers," CEO Hjalmar Winbladh told CNET. Wrapp will start to add other features as well, he said. The company is truly mobile first, according to Winbladh. Wrapp users access the service from its mobile app, which is connected to the Facebook platform, 90 percent of the time, sending a total of 15 million cards since the company launched in November 2011. The company -- now working with more than 200 retailers across the U.S., U.K., Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Finland, Norway and Australia -- was delivering 1 million cards a week during the last holiday season. And mobile is going to continue to play that important role with the addition of Wrapp's new investors, according to Winbladh. This second round of funding came from Wrapp's early supporters, Graylock Partners, Atomico and Creandum, as well as new investors American Express, Qualcomm Ventures, and Nordic financial services group SEB. In addition to the infusion of funding, Wrapp is gearing up to launch a new marketing campaign the U.S. for a food-related product similar to a successful campaign in Sweden where McDonalds used Wrapp to launch a new product, a wrap aimed at woman between the ages of 20 to 40. It was meant to boost the company's image to the health-conscious demographic. Seventy percent of Wrapp's users are women, so it's a natural market for them to target. Related stories The social 'gifting' boom: Wrapp now sending 1M cards a week Get top dollar for iPhone trade-ins Wrapp using Facebook to target back-to-school shoppers Winbladh said SEB has important connections in Wrapp's test market, while American Express and Qualcomm Ventures provide connections to the mobile payments and mobile manufacturing space. Tapping into those mobile spaces is an interesting move for Wrapp, which could be gearing up for services that are geo-location specific, given what its new investors are focused on and Wrapp's goal to be built into digital wallets. Winbladh said it's all about the connections, for now. "We believe its about making strategic relationships with mobile operators an manufacturers over time," he said. "We feel it's important to build those relationships with that pipeline."

Posted by : Unknown Thursday, June 13, 2013

The social marketing company continues to grow with new brands and strategic investors important to its mobile efforts.



June 13, 2013 5:11 AM PDT



(Credit: Wrapp)


Wrapp, the company that lets Facebook friends send digital gift cards to each other, has picked up strategic new investors from the mobile manufacturing and mobile payments industry who are pouring another $15 million into the company.


The money is going toward the development of the app's latest feature, brand pages. Users can now follow a brand for special deals for themselves.


"The whole idea with Wrapp is to build a win-win relationship between consumers and retailers," CEO Hjalmar Winbladh told CNET. Wrapp will start to add other features as well, he said.


The company is truly mobile first, according to Winbladh. Wrapp users access the service from its mobile app, which is connected to the Facebook platform, 90 percent of the time, sending a total of 15 million cards since the company launched in November 2011. The company -- now working with more than 200 retailers across the U.S., U.K., Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Finland, Norway and Australia -- was delivering 1 million cards a week during the last holiday season.


And mobile is going to continue to play that important role with the addition of Wrapp's new investors, according to Winbladh.


This second round of funding came from Wrapp's early supporters, Graylock Partners, Atomico and Creandum, as well as new investors American Express, Qualcomm Ventures, and Nordic financial services group SEB.


In addition to the infusion of funding, Wrapp is gearing up to launch a new marketing campaign the U.S. for a food-related product similar to a successful campaign in Sweden where McDonalds used Wrapp to launch a new product, a wrap aimed at woman between the ages of 20 to 40. It was meant to boost the company's image to the health-conscious demographic. Seventy percent of Wrapp's users are women, so it's a natural market for them to target.



Winbladh said SEB has important connections in Wrapp's test market, while American Express and Qualcomm Ventures provide connections to the mobile payments and mobile manufacturing space. Tapping into those mobile spaces is an interesting move for Wrapp, which could be gearing up for services that are geo-location specific, given what its new investors are focused on and Wrapp's goal to be built into digital wallets.


Winbladh said it's all about the connections, for now.


"We believe its about making strategic relationships with mobile operators an manufacturers over time," he said. "We feel it's important to build those relationships with that pipeline."



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