Mobile gifting startup Giiv raised $3.35 million in a series A round announced today. Investors included Google CEO Eric Schmidt (through his personal seed fund TomorrowVentures), Saban Ventures, Founder Collective, and SK Telecom Ventures. Schmidt was already a seed investor.
If the investors could have texted the $3.35 million into Giiv’s bank account, they probably would have. Giiv is a mobile gifting service which works via text messages, an iPhone app, and a Facebook app. It’s tag line is “texting with benefits.”
Giiv makes sending gifts easy by letting people text a redemption code for a store credit to a friend. Instead of buying someone a gift card, you can simply send them an SMS code via Giiv which they can use in both physical and online stores, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Macy’s, and Fandango.