Discounted gift cards concept opens up opportunities

Tapping into the niche market of discounted gift cards is Perth-based start-up Cardnap, the brainchild of 16-year-old entrepreneur Lachy Groom.

Cardnap has already become profitable despite launching just a few weeks ago. The site lets users search for the best deals on gift cards and allows users to resell their own.

The business has also forged partnerships with rival sites, such as Cardpool and PlasticJungle, in order for users to determine which site is offering the best rates on a particular gift card.

Groom says Cardnap was originally intended to be an “Australian version of Cardpool” but he and co-founder Josh Davies decided against it.

The co-founders are actively seeking seed funding, and have already had some interest from Silicon Valley investors.

There has been a noticeable rise in the popularity of card-exchange marketplaces in the last few years, but is there demand for sites of this nature selling other items?

Surely discounted cards are not the only category that would thrive within this model; discounted gifts or vouchers may be another worthwhile start-up idea.