In 2012 and 2013 we were issued some of the major patents around gift credits.
We invested $1m into trying to launch the business. We also acquired part of Giftly. Then, we built an app and a website, and began to attempt to get Visa, Mastercard, and Financial Institutions (FI) to work with us.
Sadly, Financial Institutions believed they owned their customers, and Visa/Mastercard did not have integrations for companies like GiftYa.
At the same time, GiftCards.com was skyrocketing. We were selling millions of gift cards per year, and started the sale process of the business. GiftYa, being stymied by the FIs, Visa and Mastercard, was tabled.
