Today, February 6, 2013 was a milestone day here at CardCash.com. Forbes released their annual rankings for America’s 100 Most Promising Companies and CardCash was ranked #85. The list profiles the companies with the brightest upside across the country and it is a real honor for us to be part of the rankings.

Below is the press release we sent out marking the occasion:

Forbes Magazine Ranks CardCash.com as One of America’s Top 100 Most Promising Companies

CardCash.com, the leading online discounted gift card exchange, is pleased to announce they have been ranked at No. 85 on Forbes annual ranking of America’s Most Promising Companies — a list of 100 privately held, high-growth companies with bright futures.

“It is both humbling and a great honor to be named by Forbes on this prestigious list”, says CardCash CEO and co-founder Elliot Bohm. Bohm was also named today by Forbes as one of America’s most promising CEOs under the age of 35- a list comprised of just 22 individuals.

Annual gift card sales exceed $100 billion annually in the US; roughly 10% go unspent. Since its inception in 2006, CardCash has been helping consumers by providing a secondary market for these cards.

“In this challenging economy our service is a win-win situation”, says COO and co-founder Marc Ackerman. “Recipients of unwanted gift cards get cash to use to pay their rent or mortgage, or to buy basic necessities. At the same time consumers save on an average 10-15% off their favorite merchants by purchasing these gift cards at a discount and then using them for their own shopping needs.”

CardCash has been profitable since its inception and has been growing by close to 300% each year.  The company is now in the process of procuring venture funding as it develops new and exciting initiatives to further expand into the financial services space, and integrate its service into banking and payment solutions.  CardCash recently brought two senior banking advisers on board; Jeffrey Keil, former President of Republic New York Corporation and Chairman of its Finance Committee, and Carol Realini former CEO of Obopay, a mobile banking pioneer and expert. The two are working closely with CardCash, lending their expertise and advice on CardCash’s developmental initiatives including integration into banking and payment systems.

Forbes Methodology

One metric never says it all. For the Most Promising list, FORBES strove for a holistic gauge of young, privately-held companies, trying to pin down their trajectories by looking at a slew of variables. Over the course of six months FORBES reviewed thousands of applications. The final assessment is based on growth (both in sales and hiring), quality of management team and investors, margins, market size and key partnerships. FORBES turned to CB Insights, a Manhattan-based data research firm that specializes in assessing private companies, to refine the search. Their MOSAIC software scans 45,000 sources to measure a company’s health. A new distribution deal, for example, marks a positive signal, while the loss of an executive is a negative. MOSAIC gathers those myriad signals into a final score that FORBES uses as an initial guide in producing the list. After verifying sales numbers, speaking with each company and debating their merits and blemishes, FORBES produces a final ranking.

About CardCash.com

CardCash.com is the leading online discounted gift card exchange, enabling customers to buy, sell or trade gift cards and save up to 35 percent on gift card purchases. According to a recent study, there are close to 60 billion dollars of unwanted and unused gift cards collecting dust in the United States. CardCash.com has been helping millions of Americans since its inception in 2006. And now, just a few years later, the Web site has reached a new level, transferring millions of dollars per year in gift cards to people who have no use for them to people who are anxious to save money on all of their shopping expenses. Headquartered in East Windsor, NJ, CardCash.com presently offers the largest selection of discounted gift cards online and has the highest standards of security implemented to identify fraudulent sellers and inaccurate cards. You can find them on Twitter @CardCash_com or on their Facebook page, Cardcash.com.

CardCash.com has previously been ranked #68 on the Inc. 500’s list of fastest growing private companies in America.