Restaurant.com Owner RDE Acquires Gift Card Marketplace CardCash.com

RDE, the owner and operator of digital deals brand Restaurant.com, has closed on its acquisition of secondary gift card marketplace CardCash.com.

This business combination expands RDE’s cross-selling marketing opportunities and provides Restaurant.com’s customers with a broader range of options when choosing discounted gift cards, the companies said in a Wednesday (Jan. 3) press release.

“We believe that the combined resources of RDE, Inc. and CardCash.com will enable customers to experience unprecedented savings on gift card purchases,” Ketan Thakker, CEO of RDE, said in the release. “By leveraging the power of digital technology, customers can exchange or access discounted gift cards instantly and realize substantial savings every time they dine, shop or enjoy entertainment.”

RDE and CardCash.com announced in August that RDE had signed a definitive agreement to acquire CardCash.com, including all of its products and intellectual property.

The combined businesses earned over $100 million in revenue in 2023 and accelerated their business traction in the $300 billion-a-year U.S. consumer gift card market, according to the Wednesday press release.

The CardCash.com platform allows consumers to sell unwanted gift cards, purchase other cards at a discount and receive those digital cards within seconds, the release said. For retailers, the platform allows them to capture competitors’ customers by converting competitors’ cards into their own currency.

The company’s new owner, RDE, offers restaurant certificates and gift cards that help customers save money with just a few clicks, per the release.

Elliot Bohm, CEO at CardCash.com, said in the release: “We are thrilled to join RDE, Inc.’s platform to offer the country’s largest and most secure selection of discounted gift cards online. There are tremendous opportunities ahead for us in growing the combined business through synergies, cross-selling and additional revenue products.”

In another recent development in this space, online gift card platform Tbay said on Saturday (Dec. 27) that it has introduced a “Quick Sell Mode” designed to make card transactions faster. The program aims to reduce gift card transaction time by at least 20%.

On Dec. 20, CardCash.com and Onbe partnered to enable consumers to exchange their unwanted gift cards for instant virtual cards. With instant payouts on virtual Mastercard cards, consumers can immediately spend their money with any merchant that accepts Mastercard.