FinovateSpring 2011 / FreeMonee
Presenter Profile:
How they describe themselves: FreeMonee is the world’s first national gift network – we connect millions of credit and debit cardholders from the world’s largest financial institutions with national and local merchants. The merchants offer FreeMonee gifts – monetary incentives – to individual cardholders through the financial institutions. FreeMonee gifts function like a gift card on an individual’s debit or credit card, allowing consumers to purchase anything they want with the designated merchant, with no strings attached. FreeMonee anonymously matches consumers to the gifts using their proprietary Adaptive Matching Technology that analyzes card transaction data to identify the highest value consumers for merchants.
How they describe their product/innovation: FreeMonee, the world’s first gift network, enables merchants to profitably attract new customers and financial institutions to generate incremental customer-friendly revenue.
Contacts:
Bus. Dev. & Sales: Mark Uiker, Head of Business Development, mark.uiker@fmntechnologies.com
Press: Jennifer De Laura, Director, Allison & Partners for FMN, jdelaura@allisonpr.com, 415-277-4937
Website: www.freemonee.com
HQ Location: San Mateo, CA
Company Founded: July 2009
Product Being Demoed: FreeMonee
Product Launched: May 11, 2011
Metrics: FreeMonee raised over $10 million (as FreeMonee) in an initial round of funding; 25 employees and growing
- Key Executives
Gadi Maier (CEO & President), Joe Salesky (Founder & Chief Strategy Officer), Mike Linton (EVP of Sales & Marketing), Jim Taschetta (CMO), Andy Laursen (Head of Engineering), Ayelet Zadock (Head of Network Services), Mark Uiker (Head of Business Development)
Key Stats
- Key Board Members
Phil Marineau (Partner, LNK Partners; Chairman of the Board, Shutterfly; former President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co. and Pepsi-Cola North America), Peter Ueberroth, (Managing Director, Contrarian Group; Owner and Co-Chairman, Pebble Beach Co.; Director, The Coca-Cola Co.; former President, LA Olympic Organizing Committee)
- Key Investors
Pinnacle Ventures, Red Point Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, Opus Capital Ventures, and several notable angel investors
- Key Partnerships
FreeMonee works with the nation’s top financial institutions