- Leading online fundraising platform Omaze — a company that offers once-in-a-lifetime experiences and prizes to support charities around the world — announced that it has closed a $30 million Series B round of funding
Leading online fundraising platform Omaze — a company that offers once-in-a-lifetime experiences and prizes to support charities around the world — announced that it has closed a $30 million Series B round of funding led by FirstMark Capital. And additional investors include Causeway Media Partners, BDMI, Tusk Ventures, Inherent Group, Gaingels, Penni Thow’s Copper, and Guy Oseary.
Omaze — which was co-founded by CEO Matt Pohlson in 2012 — evolved into a leader in social impact and the industry standard of business as a force for good. And 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 netted over $130M to support more than 350 charities to date.
Pohlson was inspired by a near-death experience in 2018 to drive the business model for creating impact on a 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. For example, 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 ranging from Donut Media to the Petersen Automotive Museum, single car experiences run through the Omaze platform can gross over $3.5 million and create a massive impact for charities.
And in addition to celebrity experiences, cars, and travel, Omaze formally launched homes as a prize offering in the last year. The company already launched two homes over $1 million on the platform, one located in Miami, FL, and the other in Cheshire, UK.
This funding round follows a $12 million A+ round in 2018 and will enable Omaze to continue to invest and scale the home and car categories. Omaze aims to offer more than 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 its international expansion, which will be initially focused on Western Europe and Asia.
Along with the funding round, Omaze also welcomed two new board members: Wyc Grousbeck, Celtics Lead Owner, Co-founder of Causeway Media Partners, and renowned philanthropist; and Penni Thow, previously Executive Vice President at SB Projects and now Founder and CEO of Copper.
KEY QUOTES:
“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, These funds come at a critical inflection point for the company. We’re excited to accelerate our international expansion and scale our impact.”
– Omaze co-founder and CEO Matt Pohlson
“We’ve been impressed with Omaze’s incredible growth over the last two years. 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.”
– Rick Heitzmann, Omaze board member and Managing Director of FirstMark Capital
“Omaze has a long track record of driving outsized impact by partnering with the most influential people in sports, entertainment, music and business. 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.”
– Wyc Grousbeck
“Omaze is unmatched in their ability to empower world-changing charities as a leader in experiential giving and social impact. 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.”
– Penni Thow
