Why It Matters
Gift cards are evolving from simple birthday presents into a strategic financial instrument that can boost consumer loyalty and stretch limited budgets, especially for everyday Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Tillo’s infrastructure shows how fintechs can leverage this tool to create more personalized, cost‑effective incentives, a trend that’s reshaping rewards programs across industries and borders.
Key Takeaways
- •Single API links businesses to thousands of gift card brands.
- •Gift cards turn cost centers into profit with 800 bps margin.
- •Tillo serves 40 countries, targeting $3.5 B annual transaction volume.
- •Self-use accounts for 80% of Tillo’s gift card transactions.
- •Neobanks and fintechs adopt gift rewards for real‑time personalization.
Pulse Analysis
Gift cards have evolved from simple birthday presents into a sophisticated payment instrument, and Tillo sits at the heart of that transformation. Founded in 2016 after a previous exit, the Austin‑based fintech built a single‑API platform that instantly connects merchants, fintechs, and enterprises to thousands of branded gift‑card programs. By abstracting the fragmented landscape of fixed‑denomination cards, Tillo enables businesses to reward customers and employees with instantly redeemable value, turning traditional cost centers into profit centers that capture roughly 800 basis points of shared margin. The company now processes over $3.5 billion annually across 40 countries.
What sets Tillo apart is its true two‑sided marketplace. Unlike aggregators that only list brands, Tillo manages the entire stack for issuers, providing end‑to‑end processing, reporting, and compliance through one connection. This breadth gives partners access to a catalog of the top 30‑50 local brands in any supported market, making cross‑border rewards as simple as a domestic transaction. Remarkably, about 80 % of volume is self‑use—consumers convert cash‑back or payouts into higher‑value gift cards rather than gifting others—boosting engagement and loyalty. The global team, spanning the U.S., Europe, Africa, and Australia, ensures localized support at scale.
Looking ahead, Tillo is targeting universal coverage, aiming to offer a curated brand catalog in every country and to become the default digital rewards infrastructure for neobanks, payroll platforms, and payout services. Real‑time issuance and programmable stored value are emerging trends that Tillo plans to embed, leveraging open‑banking standards and potential blockchain integrations to streamline refunds and custom reward rules. As the U.S. catches up with Europe’s faster RTP networks, Tillo’s API could power next‑generation loyalty programs that adapt instantly to a consumer’s location, turning everyday spending into personalized, cross‑border value.
Episode Description
Gift cards have a branding problem and it’s costing the payments world a big idea. Alex Preece, CEO and Co-Founder of Tillo, joins us to make the case that gift cards aren’t really “gifts” at all. They’re programmable stored value, a modern redemption rail that can sit inside bank apps, fintech wallets, cashback programs, employee rewards, refunds, and payouts. Once you see them as a payment instrument, the market looks a lot less like novelty and a lot more like infrastructure.
We dig into how Tillo built a two-sided marketplace that connects thousands of retail brands with the businesses that want to reward customers and employees. Alex explains why a single API matters in a fragmented global ecosystem, what it takes to support multi-country catalogs, and how better tooling and transparency can make brands more confident partners. We also talk about a surprising insight: most volume is self-use, not gifting, because people are optimizing everyday spending by converting earned value into higher-impact rewards.
We zoom out to the bigger payments trends reshaping rewards and loyalty: the demand for real-time gratification, the opportunity created by open banking and faster payments like RTP and FedNow, and the emerging push toward “global but local” benefits that actually work when customers travel or live abroad. If you’re building in payments, loyalty, or fintech growth, this is a practical look at where rewards infrastructure is heading and why it can change behavior at the moment of decision.
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