SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Gift-card payment network Openbucks recently announces the closing of a $4.8 million "Series A" funding round led by Yahoo co-founder, Jerry Yang among other investors.
The money will support Openbucks' strategic growth plans, including the continued development of its acceptance network.
The Openbucks network enables consumers who don't have credit cards or a bank account to pay for online goods and services using the gift cards of major retailers. The regular gift cards from retailers like Subway, CVS Pharmacy, Burger King, Shell, Circle-K and CITGO are now accepted online through the Openbucks.
"Consumers can obtain a gift card from one of our partner brands at over 100,000 locations nationwide, and use it to pay online in a way that is fast and safe, without any of the fees they would incur with the other prepaid cards currently available on the market," said Marc Rochman, founder and CEO of Openbucks, Santa Clara, Calif. "We also generate a mutually beneficial exchange of foot traffic between online and offline retailers."
"The Openbucks Gift Card Payment Network taps into a whole new market of consumers that either by choice or due to limited resources may not have been able to previously buy goods online," said Jerry Yang. "Openbucks stands at the forefront of the future of online payments as it provides a simple solution to 25% of U.S. households and most U.S. teens, who have no or very limited access to credit cards, along with the many consumers who are leery of providing their financial information online."
"We transform analog money into digital money and have seen a fantastic adoption in the past 10 months since our launch … less than a year ago. We are now preparing to scale up the network and bring millions of new customers to online commerce," added Geva Solomonovich, Openbucks' chief technical officer. "Openbucks builds a natural bridge between cash and electronic payments, connecting online and offline consumer activity."
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