Niklas Zennström joins Wrapp board as Atomico invests in Creandum's portfolio company Wrapp

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Wrapp, the new social gifting service that lets friends celebrate with free gifts of real value from attractive brands, today announced it has received $5.5 million in Series A funding led by Atomico, the international venture capital firm formed by Niklas Zennström, the successful serial-entrepreneur and co-founder of Skype, Kazaa and other companies.

Seed funding earlier this year from Creandum, the leading Nordic venture firm, allowed Wrapp to conduct a proof-of-concept test and commercial launch in Sweden. The Series A funds, which include a contribution from Creandum, will be used to launch Wrapp's social gifting service in the U.S. and U.K., as well as for ongoing development of the Wrapp application.

Created for social media and smartphone users, Wrapp makes it fun and easy to give, receive and redeem digital gift cards using mobile devices, and allows friends to contribute to gifts given by mutual friends. Gift cards, a $100 billion industry in the U.S., have been the most popular gift request for four years running, according to the National Retail Federation in Washington D.C.

"Wrapp is targeting a huge market by leveraging two mega-trends: social networks and smartphones," said Zennström, who is joining Wrapp's board of directors. "If anyone can disrupt the gift card industry for the better - make it larger by taking it digital, mobile and social - it's the talented team at Wrapp."

Added Johan Brenner, Creandum partner and Wrapp board member: "We saw early on that Wrapp is at the center of where the gift card industry is headed. With Wrapp, retailers can now create highly targeted pay for performance campaigns and drive sales offline from desired customers online. With Atomico's investment and help we are strengthening Wrapp's prospects tremendously."

Wrapp was started earlier this year by Hjalmar Winbladh and a team of young entrepreneurs, including Andreas Ehn, Spotify's founding chief technology officer; Carl Fritjofsson, digital media entrepreneur and former strategy advisor to Groupon.se; Aage Reerslev, founder of mobile browser Squace; and Fabian Mansson, former CEO of H&M and Eddie Bauer. Winbladh co-founded Sendit, the first mobile Internet company, where he was CEO and took it public in 1997 before being acquired by Microsoft. In 2006 Winbladh co-founded Rebtel, the world's largest independent mobile VoIP company.

Although Wrapp is currently operating only in Sweden, people around the world are welcome to download the Wrapp mobile app today and celebrate by giving digital gift cards to friends in Sweden from partners such as the country's largest sporting goods retailer Stadium, Sweden's largest consumer electronics chain Elgiganten, designer underwear brand Björn Borg, street fashion brand WeSC, and home improvement chain Clas Ohlson among 20 others.

"Facebook made it easy to connect and recognize our friends around the world with greetings," said Winbladh. "With Wrapp, friends and family can now celebrate each other with real gifts, just as easy as sending a 'hi,' 'thank you' or 'happy birthday' wish. Wrapp's quick start in Sweden clearly indicates that people are ready to make gift-giving an everyday event."