WeGift introduced the Runa name on March 30, 2023, alongside plans to expand its gift card infrastructure into a broader network for transferring digital value.

The company described ambitions spanning prepaid balances, loyalty points, air miles, cryptocurrency and other digital assets. It positioned the service for business-to-consumer payouts and for helping recipients spend value with connected merchants.

Runa said its existing operation had distributed more than 22.5 million gift cards across 30 countries and 18 currencies since its founding in 2016. It also reported relationships with more than 1,300 businesses.

The strategy builds on the closed-loop systems used to issue and redeem gift cards. Runa proposed connecting additional types of value through a shared software layer, alongside established banking and card networks.

Founder Aron Alexander argued that businesses would increasingly need to accept and distribute different digital assets. Those comments set out the company’s market outlook and product direction, rather than evidence that every proposed asset category was already available everywhere.

Runa remained headquartered in London. Its named investors at launch included Element Ventures, CommerzVentures, Clocktower Ventures, Volution Capital, AlbionVC and SAP.