Gift Boogle, which is positioning itself as “the Match.com for gift giving,” is gearing up to launch this month and will be a larger venture as it does so.
The Chapel Hill-based firm said Monday it had acquired MatchServe, another Triangle startup and a former technology partner for Gift Boogle.
Gift Boogle will be a presenter at the CED Tech Venture conference this week.
Sherard Griffin, the chief executive officer at MatchServ, joins Gift Boogle as its chief technology officer. Sherard previously was CEO and co-founder of AvanGuard Solutions, which focused on mobile advertising, marketing and entertainment software.
Eric McAffee, CEO of Gift Boogle, describes his firm as “the Match.com for gift giving. However, rather than relying solely on input from participants, we have the advantage of analyzing the rich data sets available via social media networks to make the right match.”
Gift Boogle helps its customers find thoughtful and memorable gifts using a social media analytics-driven application. The system uses social media data, text analytics, and information from users to identify gift giving occasions and match users with the perfect gift. The application aims to make gift giving less stressful and more meaningful by matching users with the appropriate online retailers.
McAfee, a UNC graduate, serial entrepreneur, and UNC Information Technology Services staff member, and Scott Kleist, a recent Kenan-Flagler Business School graduate, lead the company.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Sherard is a master technologist and a strong addition to our team,” McAfee said. “We were already collaborating on a world-class gift matching platform, and it was a logical next step to bring him and the MatchServ technology on board.”
Gift Boogle participated in Carolina Launch Pad, a technology startup incubator at UNC-Chapel Hill, earlier this year.
Impulsonic and Sqord, which also participated at Carolina Launch Pad, will present at the CED event as well.
