StartupBUSINESS.COM

Website:  http://www.plasticjungle.com                       

Headquarters:  California                              

Founded:  2006  

Funding:  Venture Capital                    

Sector:  Consumer Goods / Retail   

What they Say:  Each year $80B worth of gift cards are sold. Approximately 10% goes unspent. Gift cards collect in the drawers of American consumers and accrue on the balance sheets of retailers. As much as $30B sits idle.  Plastic Jungle gets trapped money - in the form of unredeemed gift cards - moving. We buy unwanted gift cards for up to 92% of the verified balance, then sell them (up to 30% off) to highly motivated consumers, saving them money in a whole new way. 

Uptake:  Revenue grew 400% in 2009 and is on track to exceed that amount in 2010. The company saw a 250% increase in unique visitors selling their gift cards after Christmas. Leading into the holiday, the increase in average daily unique visitors to plasticjungle.com exceeded 180%.

Our Take:  "Now I can get the gift I really wanted."
Gift cards have emerged as a new kind of currency. The stack of gift cards sitting in our collective drawers and causing our wallets to bulge is a testament to the need for Plastic Jungle’s services. There are now floor-to-ceiling shelves of gift cards of every conceivable merchant available for purchase at almost every grocery store and department store. They lend themselves to an impulse buy. It was only a matter of time before a smart startup stepped up to arbitrage this marketplace. The company is run by former senior executives from eBay, PayPal and Blackhawk Network (the largest third-party distributor of gift cards in the world). It has venture backing from Shasta Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, First Round Capital, Bay Partners, Harrison Metal, and Western Technology Investment. Money knows money when it sees it.