CIT’s Virginia Founders Fund Invests in Card Isle to Innovate the Greeting Card Industry
The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) today announced that the Virginia Founders Fund (VFF) has invested in Card Isle, a Blacksburg, Va.-based technology company that is rethinking how greeting cards can be distributed in a changing retail landscape. Card Isle offers turnkey solutions to design, order, and print personalized greeting cards, and will use this capital from VFF to continue their rapid growth in the eCommerce gifting sector and develop new markets.
Greeting cards have a unique ability to connect people of all generations, whether it is to celebrate a birthday or anniversary, or to express sympathy or gratitude. Card Isle is focused on creating a stress-free card-buying experience by making greeting cards more personal, accessible, and fun. Card Isle’s suite of personalized greeting card printing solutions are used by retailers across the U.S. and Canada, allowing consumers to customize cards online and print them on-demand at a location convenient to them. Retailers can also use Card Isle’s ecommerce solutions to cross-sell personalized greeting cards with any product ordered online.
“For an industry worth $6.2 billion dollars, the typical card-buying experience is pretty grim. If you’re like me, you probably spend a lot of time searching for the right card, but still settle on a mediocre one. Card Isle is here to change that experience,” said Adam Donato, CEO of Card Isle. “We make it possible for customers to design their own cards from home, through the businesses and services they already use. This also increases the average order value for our partners. We are grateful for the support of Virginia Founders Fund, which will play a significant role in our growth.”
Card Isle offers over 15,000 designs created by local and independent artists for businesses and users to choose from and create meaningful greeting cards. The company takes on the roles of sales, marketing, operations and distribution infrastructure so that artists can focus on what they do best: creating. Artists receive a royalty on every card that is printed. Card Isle’s solutions for ecommerce retailers include automated printing, managed inventory such as cardstock, ink and envelopes, and a fully customizable API that can be integrated into existing websites.
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