FreeMonee

The core of FreeMonee's business was a platform connecting merchants and banks to provide cash gifts directly to consumers' credit or debit cards. It targeted a market where merchants annually spent $325 billion on promotions. The business model was performance-based; FreeMonee collected an average success fee of $5 from a merchant whenever a consumer utilized a gift, and a portion of this fee was shared with the partner bank that facilitated the offer. This approach was designed to drive incremental sales and customer visits for merchants while offering a new revenue stream for banks.

FreeMonee's service relied on its patent-pending Adaptive Matching Technology (AMT), which analyzed anonymized transaction data from millions of cardholders to match merchant-funded gifts with the consumers most likely to use them. For consumers, the benefit was receiving a no-strings-attached cash gift to spend at a specific retailer. For merchants, the platform reported significant sales lifts of 400-700% and a high return on ad spend. By 2012, FreeMonee had partnerships with four of the top eight U.S. banks and card issuers, providing access to millions of households. The company secured a total of $45 million in funding over two rounds from investors including Sutter Hill Ventures, Opus Capital, and Redpoint Ventures. The company is now listed as deadpooled.