Omid Moallemi started social gifting app Prsnt in 2019 after discovering it was too late to send a friend a gift on his birthday. “A birthday card will take days and Amazon could only do next-day,” he says. He felt there was a better way to – quickly – express the emotional connection of gifting than a simple text message.
Prsnt, a gifting app, lets people personalise and send presents quickly and easily.
Prsnt allows people to send a gift, such as a QR code, Starbucks voucher or a Deliveroo meal, all with a personalised video, direct to someone’s smartphone in under 15 seconds.
With a background in product design and innovation, Moallemi used these skills to do what he sees as “overhauling the gifting process”.“There are several needs for the modern-day gift-giver – speed, convenience, personalisation and sustainability,” he says. “We service anyone with a birthday and a smartphone – which is a huge market.”https://interactive.guim.co.uk/embed/labs/2022/vmo2/boxout/index.htmlAdvertisement
Moallemi originally had the basic idea for Prsnt some 10 years ago but the infrastructure simply wasn’t in place. “Smartphone tech was fairly new, and the software systems weren’t available to process the Prsnt engine,” he says. “We have some great emerging tech that helps us, including digital payments and digital tokens from the brands.”
Also passionate about tech’s power for good, Moallemi says: “It enhances our lives – it allows us to connect better, achieve more and ultimately create a better world. In a further 20 years’ time, we will live in a world full of technology that hasn’t been invented yet – and that to me is really exciting.”
