By James Gary, Co-Founder and CEO
Even as mask mandates continue to dissipate, many of us still feel the effects of a persistent pandemic that has disrupted the way we live, work, and care for ourselves. This month we pause for a moment to reflect on the rapid growth of the incentive and reward payments market in 2021 and anticipate opportunities for an even stronger 2022.
Our focus in 2021 was all about innovating the platform to make it even easier to use and to expand our rewards selection and delivery options. During the past twelve months, Virtual Incentives launched several new, significant capabilities to our Payment Platform, including U.S. direct deposit to a recipient’s bank account and Canadian Virtual Visa Prepaid and Virtual Reloadable Cards.
A few milestones of which we’re particularly proud:
- We introduced more than 500 new eGift Cards in 18 countries across Europe, Africa and South America
- Issuance of VISA rewards rose 45 percent last year compared to years prior
- Amazon.com gift cards spiked by 63 percent as more consumers went digital
- We experienced a 31 percent increase in demand worldwide
- Our revenue grew 45 percent YoY
More than 100 new customers – including eight Global Fortune 500 enterprises and multiple government entities including Federal and State Agencies – placed their trust in us to deliver value, engagement, transparency, and meaning to their rewards programs.
This year, our team-first culture helped catalyze much of our success. It’s been a significant year for growth at Vi and I can’t express my appreciation enough to our customers, team members, and partners for being catalysts for the company’s ongoing success. Cheers to the exciting and fruitful quarters ahead!