gWallet pockets $10.5M Series A

The virtual currency platform is startup #3 for Gurbashk Chahal. Enters a hotly debated industry.

gWallet, a new monetization platform for social media, just closed its first institutional funding round of $10.5 million led by Adams Street Partners and Trinity Ventures. This brings total funding raised for the startup to $12.5 million.

The competes with other virtual currency platforms like Offerpal, which have come under fire recently for scammy offers that hook users into recurring credit card charges without their knowledge. CEO and serial entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal has positioned his company as more technology-driven than competitors, which allows it to better sync supply and demand, and as working more closely with advertisers to create appropriate ad content.

Chahal’s sights are already set on gobbling up competitors. “The capital will give us great resources to open new offices throughout the world, launch our several product initiatives, and even potentially acquire companies,” he said. “I’m very excited about this milestone. I always felt – the third time can be a charm. And, I am hoping I can create #3, to be even bigger then my prior 2.”

Chahal’s “prior 2” were ad networks: ClickAgents, which he founded at the age of 16 and sold 2 years later for $40 million; and Blue Lithium, which he sold to Yahoo for $300 million in 2007. Chahal founded gWallet at the ripe old age of 27 initially as a platform for coupons. He soon shifted to become a virtual currency platform, attracted to the by the bigger market for virtual goods.