Press Release GiftRound is Crowdfunding

Scottish cashless online group collections company scales up in crowdfunding drive for future growth in a cashless society

Scottish-based cashless online group collections company GiftRound is launching a new round of crowdfunding to raise £75,000 to scale up and deliver its vision to disrupt the way people ‘group collect’ for gifts; the business is continuing to grow by on average 25% each month. This is after a year in which the company has handled over 4,250 contributions into various group collections for gifts.

GiftRound’s 100%-free, online platform solves the universal business problem of organising group collections for staff members in companies and organisations across the UK and internationally. In an increasingly cashless society and a multi-locational working environment this is a problem that is, if anything, getting worse. The company’s offering is part of Scotland’s burgeoning fintech sector, which is becoming an increasingly important part of Scotland’s economy.

Stephen Ingledew, Chief Executive of FinTech Scotland, said:

"GiftRound are an ideal example of what fintech is. Thanks to the blend of their technology and data, their innovation has the potential to make a big difference to the way people live their lives and access money. Craig and his team have done a fantastic job taking GiftRound to where it's at today and we're very excited to see what they'll achieve next with the funds raised through the crowdfunding campaign."

Speaking of the origins of the company, founder and chief executive officer Craig Forsythe says:

‘GiftRound began as an idea that I woke up with several years ago. I wondered why there wasn’t an online solution for gift collections at work. It started an odyssey for me to see if it was possible to remove the hassle whilst bringing back the fun to gift giving.’

Craig Forsythe continued:

‘Since our launch in June 2018, and after a 6-month period of concept testing, GiftRound has gone from strength to strength. We’re now lookingto improve the user journey of the GiftRound platform by integrating a GiftRound Store to provide customers with a seamless experience. We are looking to grow our brand presence and reputation for quality service for everyone that wants to organise a group collection to buy a gift.’

Recent research from GiftRound shows that office collections currently take anything between 2 and 7 hours of a staff member’s time. The traditional method of collecting involves sending an envelope around the office. This time-consuming method is made even more onerous when people forget to bring sufficient, or even any, money with them to work, and when there are people who want to contribute from different offices, whilst working from home and international locations.

Against this backdrop, GiftRound is a quick, hassle-free and secure way to collect money for gifts. Its online platform allows people to create collections at will, invite others to contribute, leave a comment and, critically, buy a gift or an experience for someone. The platform is free to use: GiftRound receives a commission for any gifts, gift vouchers or gift experiences that are bought through the platform from retailers that include national stores such as John Lewis but also smaller quality retailers such as, Mademoiselle Macaron and CalEli Gifts.

The platform also solves another major issue for people organising collections: everything is completely transparent and all of the money side of things is taken care of, which lifts responsibility and accountability off the shoulders of an individual member of staff, often a busy office manager or PA.

In July, GiftRound was recognised as one of the top 10 ‘best and brightest businesses currently growing within an RBS Entrepreneur Accelerator’. https://bit.ly/2wpdeAk and https://bit.ly/2SwfC0L

Not content to rest on their laurels GiftRound have a focus in 2020 to disrupt the way people group collect for gifts not just in workplace but also in the £600 million per year weddings gift market and for the 220,000 primary school collections for teachers that are bought a gift by grateful parents at the end of each school year.