Omaze, the leading online fundraising platform that offers once-in-a-lifetime experiences and prizes to support charities around the world, announced the close of a $30 million Series B round led by FirstMark Capital. Additional investors include Causeway Media Partners, BDMI, Tusk Ventures, Inherent Group, Gaingels, Penni Thow’s Copper and Guy Oseary.
Co-founded by CEO Matt Pohlson in 2012, Omaze offers people around the world the chance to win experiences with high-profile people including Michelle Obama, Oprah, and George and Amal Clooney, or prizes like a Lamborghini blessed and signed by Pope Francis, a custom tiny home or a waterfront dream home in Miami. With a portion of proceeds from each experience supporting a cause, Omaze has netted over $130M to support more than 350 charities to date.
“We’re grateful to close this round during a challenging year and fundraising environment. It’s a testament to the resiliency of our team and the generosity of our community,” said Pohlson. “These funds come at a critical inflection point for the company. We’re excited to accelerate our international expansion and scale our impact.”
Inspired by a near death experience in 2018, Pohlson evolved the business model to create impact at greater scale. In the past 18 months, Omaze has experienced rapid growth in key areas of the business outside of celebrity experiences, most notably within the car vertical. The company went from offering three cars as prizes in 2018 to nearly fifty aspirational, limited edition and one-of-a-kind vehicles so far in 2020. With innovative influencer collaborations and partnerships ranging from Donut Media to the Petersen Automotive Museum, single car experiences run through the Omaze platform can gross over $3.5M and create a massive impact for charities.
This raise follows a $12M A+ round in 2018, and will enable Omaze to continue to invest and scale the home and car categories, two of the fastest growing verticals of the business. Omaze aims to offer 20+ homes next year, and ultimately become the go-to place for car enthusiasts around the world. These funds will also enable Omaze to accelerate their international expansion, which will be initially focused on Western Europe and Asia.
“We’ve been impressed with Omaze’s incredible growth over the last two years,” said Rick Heitzmann, Omaze board member and Managing Director of FirstMark Capital. “Not only have they grown their revenue by 500%, they have made the strategic investments to empower them to create and own the entire category.”
In addition to closing the round, Omaze also welcomed two new board members: Wyc Grousbeck, Celtics Lead Owner, Co-founder of Causeway Media Partners and highly respected philanthropist; and Penni Thow, previously Executive Vice President at SB Projects and now Founder and CEO of Copper.
“Omaze has a long track record of driving outsized impact by partnering with the most influential people in sports, entertainment, music and business,” said Grousbeck. “I’m excited to join the board as Omaze continues to expand into new categories and drive impact on an international, national and local level.”
“Omaze is unmatched in their ability to empower world-changing charities as a leader in experiential giving and social impact,” said Thow. “I am honored to join the Omaze board and help them realize their vision of becoming the first for-profit company to give $1B to charity in a single year.”
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