SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Knack, the leader in custom gifting, announced today that it has raised $3.5M in Series A equity investment to support the company’s rapid growth in the personal and corporate gifting space. The latest fundraising round was led by Seattle-based Second Avenue Partners. As part of the equity investment agreement, Second Avenue’s partner and co-founder, Nick Hanauer will join the Knack board of directors.
“While we’ve enjoyed triple-digit growth every year since our inception, the pandemic accelerated our growth curve by at least a year as people sought digital methods for staying connected. This investment will allow us to make infrastructure investments to support and multiply that growth,” said Laura Jennings, Knack Founder and CEO. “Second Avenue Partners is the perfect team to help our company continue our growth trajectory, and Nick is someone I know and trust to provide excellent guidance and counsel. He will be a strong addition to our board.”
Founded by software exec and ex-VC, Laura Jennings in 2015, Knack is a modern gift-giving e-commerce platform for personal, professional, and corporate gifting. Knack empowers both individuals and companies to create gifts that reflect their values and relationship with the recipient. For corporate customers, Knack also helps create gifts and programs that are memorable and help with client appreciation and employee engagement.
Knack invites customers to incorporate values-based items into gift sets, and enhances gifts with tech-enabled experiences such as video messages, the ability to send gifts via email, a custom gift web page accessible via a QR code, and more. Just this week, they launched their latest innovation, Knest by Knack, which invites individuals and companies to design an immersive page with videos, photos, custom messages, PDFs, and weblinks surrounding their own curated gift selection, and is sent via email to recipients. Bootstrapped by Jennings to over $20M in annual revenue, this Series A financing round represents the first external equity investment in the company.
“Second Avenue Partners provides working capital for early-stage companies in the greater Puget Sound area and Knack is a pioneering company with a limitless future,” said Nick Hanauer, partner and founder of Second Avenue. “We looked at the numbers, the innovations, and the growth opportunities at Knack and, frankly, we were blown away. We think the more people hear about Knack, the more they will want the Knack difference in gifting. I’m looking forward to working with Laura and the board.”
Knack’s business momentum has been building steadily since its 2015 launch. The Second Avenue equity investment closely follows a $6.5M senior debt package from Stonegate Capital which closed in July.
Knack has consistently innovated the gifting category, deploying the latest technologies to enhance gifting and increase satisfaction for givers and recipients. For more information, please visit http://www.knackshops.com.
About Knack
Knack, the leading online curated gifting company, is entirely giver-focused, empowering consumers to create one-of-a-kind gifts that instill feelings of absolute confidence and delight in the entire gifting experience. Founded in Seattle, Wash., in 2015, Knack makes it easy for customers to act on their ideas and curate gift boxes based on shared stories that reflect the unique values, personality, and relationship between giver and recipient. Each gift is beautifully packaged, directly delivered to the recipient’s door, and includes a custom-printed card and optional video message personalized for the recipient.
With hundreds of items to choose from, the ability to shop by ethos, industry-leading technology, and the ability to customize every gift to reflect the stories of the person's life, Knack elevates the act of gifting as a creative force for good in the world. To learn more about Knack visit http://www.knackshops.com.
About Second Avenue Partners
Second Avenue Partners is a Seattle-based provider of management, strategy, and capital for early stage companies in the Greater Puget Sound area. The firm looks to invest in promising teams and transformational ideas in a wide range of areas including internet, consumer and social media, software, and clean energy.
