Corporate gifting startup Elliephant presented with $560,000 pre-Seed round

Gifting platform Elliephant has raised $560,000 in pre-Seed funding with LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund supporting the round.

Cofounders Sheree Andersen and Johnny Reid launched Elliephant a year ago, inspired by their own frustration with how companies tackle gifting for clients and staff, setting out to create a new way to approach sales and marketing engagement, alongside addressing the astonishing levels of waste that occur. 

An estimated 40% of corporate gifts are unwanted and a majority end up in landfills. Globally, businesses spend $300 billion on corporate gifting every year in an industry often marked by manual efforts, time-consuming tasks, and difficulty in gifting at scale. Aside from that financial cost and waste, there’s the issue of unredeemed gift cards, which in the US alone, are valued at $21 billion.

Elliephant integrates with a company’s existing HR, marketing, and sales tech stacks to create automated, personalised gifting campaigns. It analyses a recipients’ preferences and the occasion to ensure a gift resonates personally and professionally. They already count SEEK, Quantium, APA and IXOM among their clients. The startup was part of the 2023 Melbourne Accelerator Program at the University of Melbourne.

Sheree Andersen, Elliephant’s CEO, said their goal is to turn every gift into an opportunity for businesses to deepen connections as part of their sales and marketing strategy.

“Our vision with Elliephant was always to transform corporate gifting. With this funding, we’re actively building a platform that will set a new standard in the industry,” she said

“In a world where every company is vying for attention, personalised gifting can be a game-changer. With Elliephant, we’re not just sending gifts; we’re helping companies make a lasting impression.”

Also supporting the pre-Seed round alongside the Alice Anderson Fund are the Jagen Family Office and Jodie Imam.

With the fresh capital will be used to expand Elliephant’s footprint in the APAC region, beginning with a strategic launch in Singapore and introduction of AI into the platform’s intelligent gifting features.

LaunchVic CEO Dr Kate Cornick said Elliephant is the 29th company backed by the Alice Anderson Fund since its launch in July 2021

“Sheree’s journey into startups follows many of our other founders – purpose-led women who have seen a gap in the market during their professional careers and created a business grounded in impact,” she said.

“We’re proud to back Sheree and the team in their mission to bring sustainability into the corporate gifting industry and build those lasting relationships we know are crucial to growing companies.”

Cofounder Johnny Reid said that after launching their MVP in October last year, they’ve updated the platform with V2 in September this year ahead of the end of year gifting period.

“This version of the platform flips traditional gifting on its head by giving recipients varied options to choose from via customised emails and urls where you don’t need the recipient’s contact details,” he said.

“Globally, businesses spend upwards of $300 billion on corporate gifting per year which is largely a manual and time-consuming process where the recipient often ends up with something they don’t need or like. We identified an opportunity to streamline this process, making it more efficient for the buyer and personalised for the recipient.”

More at Elliephant’s website.