GetGifted, the Charlottetown startup that helps merchants to attract customers, closed a $400,000 tranche of equity financing on Thursday, which it hopes will be the first close in a round totaling $1 million.

The company plans to use the angel financing to help build out its sales team throughout Atlantic Canada, especially in Halifax, and to launch GetGifted in Toronto and Boston later in the year.

“We’ve got 10 investors and eight of them are from Atlantic Canada, with two from Toronto,” said Founder and CEO Gillian McCrae in an interview Friday. “We’re at the $400,000 mark and we’re continuing to raise (money) over the next 90 days. It’s really the foundation of how we’re growing in Atlantic Canada and in larger centres later this year.”

GetGifted owns and operates an online platform that helps merchants to attract new customers by handing out gifts.

The company asks local retailers to volunteer selections of their wares -- something worth say $10 to $100 -- as gifts for customers. GetGifted gathers together all these gifts and then sends out an email each Tuesday telling its followers of all the gifts on offer. The followers can then claim the limited number of gifts, though they can only accept one per merchant. They then have 14 days to actually go to the store or restaurant to claim their gift by holding up the e-coupon on their smartphone. The merchants, which pay to subscribe, customarily end up building up new client bases and rewarding loyal consumers. Customers tend to revisit the shops that have given them gifts.

In its first year, GetGifted secured 10,000 followers in its home market of Prince Edward Island. It launched in Halifax in January and is growing by about 60 percent per month – a faster clip than it experienced in Charlottetown. Overall revenues have been steady, said McCrae, rising about 10 to 15 percent since last autumn. And now McCrae says the funding will help to fund the structure that can increase the growth.  

The company has opened an office on Spring Garden Road in Halifax, and is hiring staff in a few locations in Atlantic Canada. In particular, it has hired a vice-president of sales, who will guide the sales staff to build up the bank of merchants participating in the program.

GetGifted has held gift campaigns in Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John, but has lacked the staff to really build up momentum. The latest funding will allow the company to hire that staff.

McCrae said that will lay the groundwork to launch in Toronto in the third quarter of the year and in Boston by the end of the year.

“It’s totally doable,” said McCrae.” It doesn’t matter what part of the country they live in; there’s a lot of commonality in consumers and what they enjoy. We’re going to make Tuesday a community event right across North America.”