On Me (YC S20) Raises $6M To Disrupt Gift Cards

On Me, a digital gifting business whose team was originally made up of former Google employees, has raised $6 million in seed funding to completely rethink how gift cards should behave.

Rather than pigeonholing recipients to a specific store, the company’s platform is mobile-first and allows people to send interest-based funds that can be spent with curated-in-the-category brands across interests from tennis or gardening to gaming or live concerts.

The round was led by NFX with participation from Lerer Hippeau and Focal, an indication that investors believe in a model that incorporates marketplace dynamics into social sharing.

The company hopes to expand its categories to include experiences as varied as horseback riding lessons, wine tastings, and trips to theme parks — redefining what a “gift card” can be.

Why Category-Based Gifting Matters for Modern Shoppers

Traditional gift cards are ubiquitous but flawed. They have left many gift recipients feeling locked into a single retailer or with unused balances. According to Bankrate, American consumers sit on tens of billions of dollars’ worth of unused gift cards, vouchers, and credits — the breakage that won’t stop breaking, costing the value of gifting over time. In the meantime, the National Retail Federation has bestowed upon gift cards annual holiday wish list honors essentially forever, noting that a better format was demanded.

On Me is trying to solve for both possibilities: Givers get an easy way to show they’ve thought of something by selecting an interest, and recipients get real choice between applicable brands in the digital domain that are themed. In practice it’s a carefully curated, closed-loop marketplace structured around passions rather than store logos — lowering the decisional friction that often sends people to generic cash-equivalent cards.

Product features and personalization in digital gifting

The platform debuted with 72 different categories — from running, reading, and camping to gardening, gaming, and more. For instance, a tennis gift can be spent across such brands as Wilson, On, and Prince, making one gift go from being a single point of shopping to a small universe. Digital cards allow for video messages, photos, and GIFs — lightweight personalization that eases the transactional nature of gifts.

The service is offered on the web and via iOS and Android applications, with native wallet support using Apple Pay and Google Wallet for quick checkout. The company says it will focus more on experiential gifts — items where the choice matters, but taking them back and forth can be unwieldy if done merchant by merchant.

Sustainability is part of the pitch for digital gifts

Plastic gift cards have a hidden cost for the planet. The International Card Manufacturers Association reports that approximately 30 billion plastic cards are manufactured annually worldwide, with few options for recycling those made of PVC. By defaulting to digital delivery, On Me hopes to pare the plastic footprint and bring the format in line with how people already exchange money and messages on their phones.

Early traction and growth in the evolving gift card market

Since launching, On Me says it has helped facilitate over $2.5 million in free gifts to more than 26,000 users, with month-over-month growth of around 50%. Although based on self-reported numbers, those statistics hint at significant early product-market fit for category-led gifting and social sharing dynamics that can fuel organic adoption.

Industry estimates suggest a global gift card market of nearly $2.3 trillion by 2030, spurred by e-commerce penetration, corporate rewards programs, and digital wallets. “If the On Me model scales, they will also be able to capture demand between closed-loop retailer cards and open-loop bank cards, particularly in categories where discovery and curation matter.”

Monetization strategies and added value for merchants

On Me has not revealed its specific economics, although general category marketplaces often make money through merchant fees, affiliate-like commissions, or interchange on stored value.

Part of the appeal for brands is that it’s an efficient way to acquire customers who have intent and budget, the thinking goes, as being included in an interest-based category puts them in front of users already shopping that area. Deer said he sees, on average, basket sizes more than twice those of other campaigns, and repeat behavior that can add up to 20% overall.

Competitive landscape across gift cards and experiences

The gift card market ecosystem is ruled by distribution giants such as Blackhawk Network and InComm, along with marketplaces and fintech players enabling purchase, trade, and corporate disbursements. Experience-based services like Virgin Experience Gifts and Tinggly serve a comparable desire for fluidity but often rely on single redemptions. On Me’s distinction is its multi-merchant, interest-first card that operates as a vector of impact and dopamine release in your passions versus a coupon for one store.

What the new funding signals about growth and strategy

NFX’s participation underlines the network effects potential: every gift is an invitation for two users (you and the recipient) to come join together, sending and receiving gifts. Now with more backing from Lerer Hippeau and Focal, the company is set to build out categories, deepen integrations for merchants, and begin experimenting with new use cases like group gifting or seasonal drops where curation and virality can help lift engagement.

If On Me can continue to grow while keeping redemptions easy and fees merchant-friendly, it has a real shot at bringing a massively complex category into the modern age — one that hasn’t even kept up with the rest of digital commerce.