Givingli, a West Hollywood-based app developer that’s working to modernize and personalize gift-giving through the digital marketplace, kicked off this month with a $10 million series A funding raise. Company executives confirmed the fund closed in the first week of November, declining to provide an exact date.
The company’s app seeks to provide a “design-forward way to make everyday connections with people simple and more meaningful,” according to Givingli’s website, combining the convenience of a text with the “heart and soul” of a handwritten and personally selected card. Through a combination of partnerships with companies including Amazon, DoorDash, Starbucks and others, it the company’s website allows users to send digital gifts to others with a focus on personalization and purpose.
“Gift-giving is one of the five languages of love, alongside words of affirmation, quality time, touch, and acts of service. This is how we’ve expressed affection for hundreds of thousands of years, and as we’ve gone into the digital world, we’ve lost a lot of those love language moments,” said chief executive Nicole Enrami Green in a call with a Business Journal reporter.
Enrami Green co-founded the company in 2018 alongside her husband, Ben Green, after their own experience with the traditional wedding gift practice.
She also recalled an experience with another app; as she attempted to send a gift digitally to a close friend after the passing of a loved one, she realized the personalized message at the checkout box had a 50 character limit.
“We’re building for human beings,” Emrani Green said.
She told the Business Journal that the service began to come into its own not long after the pandemic hot, when people were eager to show their gratitude and affection through gifts despite the limits of lockdown isolation.
Ben Green is an artorney at a transactional law practice based out of Beverly Hills, while Nicole worked as an associate with counseling and development services.
The round was led by Seven Seven Six, a Florida-based venture capital firm founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Cristina Georgoulakis, the partner at Seven Seven Six leading the firm’s involvement on the deal, told the Business Journal that Seven Seven Six saw in Givingli a great concept backed by great people.
“You can feel the time, effort, and energy that was put into it,” said Georgoulakis, comparing the stored library of exchanges through Givingli to a more modern version of the old shoebox full of old letters and birthday cards. “You get to keep those warm and fuzzy feelings you get from giving and receiving.”
Emrani Green noted the Givingli team’s relatively rapid expansion in recent months, growing from a team of five imn June of last year to a team of 20 employees. She said the company plans to keep up the pace of its expansion for the immediate future, thanks in large part to the $10 million raise, with a particular focus on growing its engineering team.
