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Just in time for gift-giving season, Goody raises $15M led by SoftBank

Nancy Dahlberg
Nancy Dahlberg
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By Nancy Dahlberg

Goody, the Miami-based tech startup that makes gift-giving as simple as sending a text, has raised $15 million in new funding led by SoftBank.

Goody’s app features everything from cookies and books to jewelry, stocking stuffers and more. But how easy is the shopping experience really? After the gift giver sends a present from the comfort of their phone, the recipient enters their address, and perhaps their size or color choice too. The gift giver doesn’t pay until the present is accepted.

“Goody is the easiest way to send a gift to someone in your life. It takes 10 seconds or less. It’s an idea I’ve had for a very long time and that I always felt was missing from the world. The excitement we’ve seen around our product had us realize that we’ve really tapped into something special,” Goody’s founder, Edward Lando, explained to Refresh Miami earlier this year.

Lando, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Pareto Holdings, launched Goody just 11 months ago and this is the startup’s  third funding round. It started as a consumer app but now also includes business-to-business gifting – a $242 billion market. Goody plans to use the funding for expanding its corporate gifting strategy, called Goody+, including adding new gamified features.

“After raising a $13.1 million Series A earlier this year with NEA and a $4 million seed round with Index, we had plenty of runway,” Lando told TechCrunch, which first reported the news. “We spent money on the team, but we had a lot of interest, and the holiday season is big for e-commerce companies, so we decided to not do a full Series B — we’ll do that next year — but take money at higher terms to help us expand.”

Edward Lando, co-founder and CEO of Goody

Goody’s consumer app and desktop tool have brought in 5,000% growth during the second and third quarters of 2021, growing 615% in September and October alone, Lando told TechCrunch. Goody is eyeing more growth in the US and also Latin America for expansion, and SoftBank’s funds came from its Latin America Fund.

“We’re pumped to be investing in Goody,” Shu Nyatta, managing partner at SoftBank Latin America Fund, told TechCrunch. “There is so much white space in corporate gifting and employee engagement. It’s exciting to see a team bring a delightful, consumer-grade approach to the space. We look forward to helping Goody scale their offering beyond the U.S. and into Latin America.”

And Lando is pumped to be building this company in Miami.

“I have felt energized building this company here,” he told Refresh. “It’s really wonderful to feel like you are swimming with the tide with so many people offering to help you get awareness, funding and access to talent for your company. And the quality of life here is incredible.”

Miami-based Pareto Holdings, co-founded by Shutterstock’s Jon Oringer and Lando, is an early investor in Goody, which has now attracted more than $32 million in venture capital. Goody is hiring, too, as it scales up for expansion.

Let the holiday gift-giving season begin!

Maria Derchi Russo contributed to this story. Follow @ndahlberg on Twitter and email her at [email protected]

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