News

Globogift.com gets €815,000 and a new name

July 27th, 2003

Globogift.com, one of Ireland's few internet companies, has raised €815,000 in follow-on funding and changed its name to Globoforce, writes Gavin Daly. Benchmark Capital, of which former Esat Digifone boss Barry Maloney is a partner, led the investment, putting €640,000 into the firm.

Investment group Techinvest, employees of Davy Stockbrokers and Globoforce director Patricia Burke also invested in the latest round. The internal round brings total funding at Globoforce to more than €5 million since it was founded in 1998.

The company has developed internet-based gift vouchers that can be used in stores in 35 countries, including Brown Thomas in Ireland, Macy's in the US and Galeries Lafayette in France.

Turnover at the company is not known, but it has a broad base of corporate clients, including Microsoft, Vodafone, Boston Scientific and Xerox.

It employs 25 people in Dublin and has just turned a profit. Eric Mosley, the company's managing director, could not be contacted for comment last week. Maloney,who is a director of Globoforce, said the investment would "bolster Globoforce's cash reserves".

He said the name change reflected the company's move to target large corporate customers rather than individual ones. It is understood the company has signed several large deals with corporate customers in recent months.

Eddie Reynolds,the founder of Globoforce, also founded Inter national Shopping Events and Enterprises, which spent two years developing the voucher technology. Globoforce raised around €250,000 in seed capital in 1999, followed by €1.5 million from Montgomery Oppenheim and Patricia Burke.

Specialist early-stage investor Benchmark invested €2.5 million in the company last year, valuing it at around €15 million.

The company us ed the funding to expand its offering in the US and Europe and invest in a new software platform, according to Maloney.

The company's other directors are Burke, Reynolds and Mosley.

Accounts filed by Globoforce at the Companies Registration Office (CRO) in Dublin show it had a loss of almost €2 million at the end of December 2001. The loss left the company with a €417,000 deficit on shareholders' funds before the €2.5 million funding.

Maloney said the funder was enthusiastic about internet firms and had not stopped backing them, even during the dotcom bust.

Benchmark invested $20 million in Irish software maker Openet Telecom in 2000 and also backed John Nagle's buyout of Alphyra.

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