By Riley Kaminer
Gift cards have long been a staple of retail, but they’ve also been stuck in the past. Raise, a company that has spent over a decade modernizing the space, believes it’s time for a serious upgrade.
With a fresh $63 million funding round led by Haun Ventures, the Miami-based company is making a massive commitment to bringing gift cards fully onto the blockchain.
Raise isn’t a new player in this space. Founded by George Bousis, the company has facilitated over $5 billion in transactions and built a network of nearly 7 million users. But now, Bousis and his team are betting that blockchain technology will fundamentally change how consumers and businesses use gift cards.
“We’ve invested tens of millions of dollars in bringing gift cards and loyalty programs on-chain,” Bousis said in a statement. “Now, we’re making a nine-figure commitment over the next several years to fully realize this vision.”
The goal? Turning gift cards into a programmable retail currency that fosters deeper engagement between brands and their customers. Traditional gift cards have always been limited: they can’t be easily transferred, they’re often prone to fraud, and they don’t offer much flexibility. Raise’s blockchain-powered “Smart Cards” aim to change that, allowing retailers to create more secure, customizable, and fraud-resistant loyalty programs.
Security is a major driver behind Raise’s push to blockchain. The company has worked with the U.S. Secret Service to address fraud in the industry, a problem that has led to losses of hundreds of millions of dollars annually due to organized crime.
Bousis noted that while Raise has been exploring blockchain and crypto for years, they waited for the right regulatory environment and technical infrastructure to push forward.
“The barriers that once existed are no longer obstacles,” he said. Over the past two-and-a-half years, Raise has already invested $25 million of its own profits into developing its blockchain platform.
The company’s vision has attracted a whole host of high-profile investors, including Amber Group, Blackpine, Borderless Capital, GSR, and Paper Ventures, alongside a smattering of angels. The funding will fuel the expansion of Smart Cards and the Retail Alliance Foundation, a non-profit coalition dedicated to uniting global retailers around a more transparent and interoperable gift card system.
According to Bousis, the company is now profitable, though he declined to say by how much. And while Raise isn’t disclosing which retailers are on board just yet, Bousis claims they include Fortune 500 companies and some of the biggest global brands.
Diogo Monica, General Partner at Haun Ventures, believes Raise is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this opportunity. “Raise is seizing a massive, outdated market with the right mix of experience, infrastructure, and blockchain expertise,” Monica commented. “This isn’t just a bet on the future of gift cards—it’s an investment in a proven team solving a trillion-dollar problem.”
Raise ’s model involves using stablecoins – cryptocurrencies pegged to the U.S. dollar – to hold consumer funds in escrow until the gift card is used, at which point the retailer is paid through ACH or stablecoin. This approach, Bousis asserts, will eventually be decentralized through a nonprofit and a cryptocurrency, making it cheaper and more secure than traditional payment systems.
With global sales projected to surpass $2.3 trillion by 2030, gift cards have become an essential part of the retail ecosystem. Raise is positioning itself at the forefront of this shift, aiming to modernize the industry while giving brands and consumers more control over their loyalty programs.
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