GiftRocket, a Y Combinator-backed startup, is launching this week a service that marries the concept of virtual gift cards with location-based services.
Basically, GiftRocket lets you send money to a friend or relative in a snap, but also see to it that the transaction is effectively made only when the recipient ‘checks in’ to a certain location.
Hence, you could use GiftRocket to send $15 to a friend to sway him or her into checking out the breakfast offering at that coffee place you’ve been raving about, or you can gift your mother a $50 bouquet of flowers but only if she visits that new flower shop a couple of blocks away.
The idea is similar to Venmo’s Gifi – which launched at TechCrunch Disrupt – but far less complicated: with Gifi, the recipient is required to have an iPhone and use both the Venmo and the Foursquare app, while GiftRocket only requires people to click a ‘redeem’ button on a mobile website from any GPS-enabled handset.
Here’s how GiftRocket works: pick any business or location, including restaurants, bars, parks or any office building. Specify the amount you would like to gift, and the recipient’s email address.
Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025
Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, Vinod Khosla — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before doors open to save up to $444.
Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025
Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, Vinod Khosla — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before doors open to save up to $444.
All the latter has to do now is show up at the location you’ve specified – this is verified by determining the recipient’s location via GPS – and subsequently open a dedicated link that was sent to him or her in an email.
A few seconds later, the money that was gifted (e.g. $50) goes straight to the recipient’s PayPal account – if the person does not have a PayPal account, one will be auto-created to ensure a relatively smooth user experience.
Of course, the recipient can always opt not to actually use the gifted money to spend it on whatever is on sale at the pre-defined location, but that’s not really the point: it’s part virtual gift card, part place discovery, and generally a novel way to send people a useful gift they’ll remember.
To make money, GiftRocket charges $1 + 5% of the gift amount.
Fun fact: GiftRocket’s ‘redeem’ button was implemented by one of the startup’s co-founders, Jonathan Pines, who implemented the now-ubiquitous Facebook ‘like’ button when he worked at the social networking giant.
