---
title: 'Twas the night before Venture Northwest: Giftango finds $1.4 million under the tree'
date: '2009-10-29T00:40:38-07:00'
type: post
word_count: 323
char_count: 2174
tokens: 420
categories:
  - capital
  - Giftango
  - Investment
  - Oregon
  - Portland
  - VC
tags:
  - Giftango
  - million
  - 'venture northwest'
---

# Twas the night before Venture Northwest: Giftango finds $1.4 million under the tree

Sometimes, you get to open gifts before the big day. Such is the case with Portland-based [Giftango](http://www.giftango.com "Giftango") who—as they prepare to take the stage at [Venture Northwest](http://venturenw.org "Venture Northwest") on Thursday—had [Northwest Innovation](http://www.nwinnovation.com/story/0024847.html) and Paid Content unwrapping gifts a little early by reporting that the [Giftango had secured $1.4 million of a potential $2.1 million first round](http://paidcontent.org/article/419-giftango-raises-1.4-million-for-email-mobile-gift-cards/ "Giftango Raises $1.4 Million For Email Mobile Gift Cards").

That’s a respectable chunk of change for a Portland-area startup—especially one that might not be on our respective RADARs.

So what do they do?

Giftango provide virtual gift cards. And it delivers them to email or mobile devices. So by way of Portland company analogies, it’s kind of like a [Chockstone](https://www.chockstone.com/ "Chockstone") meets [Forkfly](http://forkfly.com/ "Forkfly").

> You may have heard the terms instant gift cards, online gift cards, or instant gift certificates to describe what we call virtual cards. A virtual card is a card or certificate that is issued by a merchant (after an online sale or as part of a promotional campaign) and immediately delivered to the intended recipient via email or SMS text message. Giftango offers the most robust Virtual Card Management (VCM) platform available, allowing merchants to connect with their customers in ways never before possible.

The source of the funding was not disclosed. Although, the [Portland Business Journal reported](http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2009/08/03/story5.html "Portland Business Journal on Giftango") that Giftango will be taking a “$500,000 infusion from the Oregon Angel Fund” as part of the round.

For more information, visit [Giftango](http://www.giftango.com "Giftango"). Or follow [Giftango on Twitter](http://twitter.com/Giftango "Giftango on Twitter").

*(Hat tip [Jeff Katz](http://twitter.com/katzpdx/ "Jeff Katz"))*

\[HTML1\]