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IfOnly
FoundedNovember 22, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-11-22) in San Francisco, United States
FounderTrevor Traina
HeadquartersSan Francisco,
California
,
United States
Key people
John Boris CEO
Joe Vierra CTO
Number of employees
100+
ParentAcquired by Mastercard Incorporated [1]
Websitewww.ifonly.com

IfOnly was a San Francisco-based an e-commerce platform and charity venture, founded by Trevor Traina.[2][3] The company offered donation and charity solutions with the aid of connecting audiences with sports, cooking, film, and music personalities.[4]

The company marketed itself as seller of dreams and experiences.[5][6][7] It connected individuals with luminaries.[8]

The platform offered experiences to its members with celebrities including Dale DeGroff, Joe Montana, Kobe Bryant, Michael Chiarello, Tyler Florence, Richard Branson, Andre Agassi, Madonna, Shakira, Justin Timberlake, Robin Thicke, Greg Norman, John McEnroe, Thomas Keller, and Alice Waters.[9][10][4][11]

The company closed in late 2019; it was folded into Mastercard's "Priceless" experiences marketplace.[12]

History

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Gillian Tett, IfOnly founder Trevor Traina, Sheryl Sandberg, and John Ridding

IfOnly was founded in 2012[13] by Trevor Traina, a serial tech-entrepreneur.[10][14][15]

In April 2018, John Boris assumed the position of CEO of IfOnly.[16] Prior to IfOnly, Mr Boris spent six years as the Chief Marketing Officer for Shutterfly.

IfOnly partnered with the Big Red Group (BRG)[citation needed] in Australia in June 2019 to launch an Australian arm of the business, IfOnly Australia.[17] The business launched on June 3, 2019.

In Q4 2019, IfOnly was acquired by Mastercard Incorporated, although the information did not become public until mid-2020.[12]

Funding

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In February 2016, the company raised $10.25 million in Series B funding, from investors like Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, Nextdoor, CEO Nirav Tolia, Yucaipa Companies co-founder Ron Burkle, Advance Newhouse, Digital Garage, and XB Ventures.[18][19]

In October, 2013, It received $12 Million in Series A round from investors including Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, American Express Ventures, the Advance/Newhouse arm of Conde Nast and Allen & Co.[9][20]

Earlier, IfOnly secured seed funding of $3 million from a group of investors including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Yuri Milner, Nirav Tolia, SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, Hosain Rahman, and Owen Van Natta.[21]

In April 2018, the company raised an undisclosed amount in Series D funding led by Mastercard, and joined by other strategic investors, including Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Sotheby's, Founders Fund, New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures, and TriplePoint Capital.[22] However, TechCrunch reported, it secured $20 million in Series D funding.[16] Also, in April 2018, John Boris joined the company as CEO [16][23]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ IfOnly | shutdown
  2. ^ Castillo, Michelle (July 7, 2014). "IfOnly Sells 2,000 Experiences in Its First Year". Adweek.
  3. ^ Locke, Michelle (December 9, 2013). "IfOnly.com grants unique experiences for charity". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
  4. ^ a b Zaslow, Alexandra (April 11, 2014). "'IfOnly' Charity Site Lets You In On Dream Experiences That Benefit Great Causes". The Huffington Post.
  5. ^ "IfOnly... making dreams come true". CNBC. February 19, 2016.
  6. ^ Lashinsky, Adam (December 8, 2015). "Welcome to the 'Experience' Economy". Fortune.
  7. ^ "IfOnly Offers Luxury Adventure With a Charitable Twist". The Wall Street Journal. September 23, 2015.
  8. ^ "IfOnly CEO: People Want to Live Experientially". Bloomberg.com. December 8, 2015.
  9. ^ a b Swisher, Kara (October 28, 2013). "A-List Experiences Startup IfOnly Nabs $12 Million in Funding From Some More A-Listers, Including Yahoo's Mayer". All Things Digital.
  10. ^ a b Bigelow, Catherine (September 2, 2014). "Trevor Traina taps rich vein of experience at IfOnly". San Francisco Chronicle.
  11. ^ Schad, Tom (December 13, 2017). "Holiday gift guide: Five cool VIP sports experiences". USA Today.
  12. ^ a b Lunden, Ingrid (August 24, 2020). "Mastercard acquired and shut down IfOnly, an experiences marketplace hit by COVID-19". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-12-26.
  13. ^ Peak, Krystal (March 4, 2016). "How CEO Trevor Traina's IfOnly crafts A-list experiences guided by experts". American City Business Journals.
  14. ^ Sprauve, Angella (November 22, 2013). "Trevor Traina Launches IfOnly at Brooks Brothers". Haute Living.
  15. ^ "President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Trevor Traina of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Austria". whitehouse.gov. January 22, 2018 – via National Archives.
  16. ^ a b c "IfOnly, a marketplace for experiences, has new funding — and a new CEO". TechCrunch. April 5, 2018.
  17. ^ cim (2019-06-03). "IfOnly launches in Australia to deliver experiences with charity twist". CIM Business Events. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
  18. ^ "IfOnly Receives $10,250,000 Series B Funding". Xconomy. August 2, 2016.
  19. ^ Loizos, Connie (February 8, 2016). "IfOnly Lands $10.25 Million Series B For Its Growing "Experiences" Marketplace". TechCrunch.
  20. ^ "IfOnly Secures $12,000,000 New Funding Round". Xconomy. October 29, 2013.
  21. ^ ""Luminary" Access Site IfOnly Officially Launches With $3M in Funding From Tech Luminaries". All Things Digital. August 3, 2013.
  22. ^ Marinova, Polina (April 4, 2018). "5 Qs with a dealmaker". Fortune.
  23. ^ "Former Shutterfly CMO Gets Once-In-A-Lifetime Gig As CEO Of IfOnly". Forbes. April 10, 2018.
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