First Data Bulks Up Digital Gift Card Portfolio

First Data, the payment technology solutions provider, has boosted its prepaid gift card roster with the acquisition of Transaction Wireless, a digital gift card company.

Based in San Diego, Transaction Wireless offers prepaid cards through its enterprise distribution platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the announcement of the acquisition on Tuesday (July 14).

First Data said it now offers its gift cards through a range of available outlets, from distributors to resellers, and moves within both the physical and digital realms. The company said the tie-up with Transaction Wireless complements the 2014 buy of Gyft, a consumer-facing digital company that allows for digital gift card transactions across mobile devices and reloading of existing cards.

“First Data now offers one of the industry’s most integrated, complete and comprehensive prepaid gift card solution at scale,” Barry McCarthy, executive vice president of First Data’s network and security solutions, said in the release.

The executive continued: “Along with our strong gift card processing and Gyft solutions, Transaction Wireless’s outstanding proprietary and comprehensive digital gifting platform will help our clients expand and accelerate their gift card programs.”

Transaction Wireless will help extend the existing portfolio made up of the Gyft and First Data prepaid solutions, which include products such as the Money Network payroll card solution.

First Data said that Transaction Wireless’s cloud-based digital platform supports both open- and closed-loop prepaid, store-branded gift card program initiatives. The company said Transaction Wireless offers what it termed “end-to-end card management” and both B2B and B2C distribution programs. Those programs are available for resellers, retailers and distributors.

Transaction Wireless’s digital platform will let retailers make the shift from traditional plastic or paper gift cards to digital gift cards. That shift would occur across multi-format distribution outlets, such as mobile, social, email and digital wallets.

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