Overfunding: In-Game Advertising Platform Giftgaming Exceeds £80,000 Funding Goal on Seedrs

UK-based in-game advertising platform Giftgaming successfully surpassed its initial £80,000 funding target through its second equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs. The company launched the initiative at the end of January and has so far raised more than £85,000.

As previously reported, Giftgaming is described as a patent-pending in-game ad service and startup supported by Accelerate Cambridge, Cambridge Judge Business School. Here’s how it works, brands give powerups, extra lives, etc. (with coupons) to players and the startup delivers them as surprise gifts to users. The platform notes that players receive an in-game gift containing a free currency or a power-up in exchange for viewing a banner or interstitial ad.

Giftgaming also stated that unlike its competitors it is less intrusive as it takes less time out of gameplay to 3 seconds versus 30 seconds and monetizes more players as it has a very high engagement rate of up to 95%. It also stated it believes it has potential to improve loyalty, spending, and reviews through gift psychology. Founder and CEO of Giftgaming, Nicholas Hatter, revealed:

“The fundamental limitation of competitors who do moment-based or achievement-based rewards is in their nature: they’re based on moments and can be too dependent on player skill. And given the average mobile gaming session is only 6.8 minutes, there’s a hard limit on the number of incentivized video ads a player can watch in one session. Giftgaming provides a non-intrusive revenue stream for game developers and publishers to make up for these flaws.”

Before the campaign exceeding its funding target, the Duke of York tweeted out support for Giftgaming:

That feeling when @TheDukeOfYork tweets about your #crowdfunding campaign! Thank you HRH + team for your support! #winning https://t.co/7OIFcPkU29

— giftgaming® (@giftgaming) March 1, 2017

The campaign is set to close later this spring.