Giftpal: Send Unique Gifts For Any Occasion, On Any Budget

Norbert Dziwornu, the founder of Startup Accra, a community for startups, entrepreneurs and investors and his partner Nicholas Mamya has built a gift-sharing platform, Giftpal. They did so two years ago.

According to Norbert, the need to get a gift for his friend on her birthday prompted the platform’s relevance

“It was a friend’s birthday, and I had to get her a gift; it was one of the biggest tasks I had to fulfil. I took to google, searching for platforms where I could buy gifts but could not make any progress. Then I went further to Instagram with recommendations from some people and never got what I wanted, so I got so frustrated, and I just had to get her a massage coupon at one of the top spas in town. She was forever grateful because that was what she needed. She was overwhelmed with work and needed something to calm her down. I shared this with Nick, and he also had similar problems, so we took up the challenge to build Giftpal. We all need to express our thoughtfulness towards people.”

Giftpal is a simple, user-friendly platform that allows users to send unique gifts to their recipients through emails or SMS. The brand focuses on quality connections by specialising in sending eccentric gifts such as spa treats and travel experiences.

“It works very simply; you visit the platform, select your desired gift, input the recipient and sender details and a complimentary note. You can also choose to send it anonymously. The recipient will receive an email or SMS alert to redeem the gift at any of our vendor outlets. As a brand, we are focused on gifts that people need, the little things that people wouldn’t expect from you, such as an online course, spa treatments, travel experience, stock, crypto, airtime, etc. For every gift shared, giftpal charges a 5% commission.”

Yet to launch in May, Giftpal has arranged over 20 gifts with its anonymous gifting option, one of the many exciting features to come during the launch. Furthermore, the gift-sharing company is working on sealing partnerships with Bitsika and HISA, a remittance and payment startup, and a Kenyan wealth management platform, respectively, and a couple of SPAs and other vendors. The collaboration will allow Giftpal to leverage Bitsika’s Console API and allow its users to send and receive stock with HISA.

While doing this, the founders also plan to launch their services in Nigeria and Kenya next year and other Francophone countries subsequently. Explaining this, Norbert stated, “because our services are online where people have to make payments online, the E-levy is likely to strike us; however, it has been great for me, and I have my competent team to thank for pushing the dream. The future is exciting already,” Norbert concluded.