How do you wrap a digital gift? MIT startup Delightfully has a clever answer

By Scott Kirsner, Globe Columnist

I know the odds are good that the recipient will use it to buy something fun or useful, but I always feel like I've taken some crass shortcut by not sending a box wrapped up in a bow, or even a paper gift certificate in the mail.

A new MIT startup called Delightfully is addressing that conflict head-on. The three-person company wants to add a layer of personalized experience to digital gift-giving. And they've raised about $100,000 in angel funding, led by Avid Technology founder Bill Warner.

"Gift-giving is intended to be about a relationship between two people — not a vendor and a recipient," says co-founder Jason Shin, an MBA student at MIT's Sloan School of Management. "When we talk about digital gift-wrapping, what we mean is showing some effort, the same way you do when you do a great job wrapping a physical gift." Instead of simply opening an e-mail, the recipient of a gift sent with Delightfully might encounter a collage of photos chosen by the sender, and have to move them around to find out what's underneath. (Perhaps an iTunes gift code, for instance.)

Shin also talks about developing videogames — think "Angry Birds" with the faces of family members — that must be played before unlocking a gift, or augmented reality "scavenger hunts" that might require the recipient to take their mobile phone to a series of locations before receiving their gift.

As for the business model, Shin says that consumers may be willing to pay a premium to have their digital gifts delivered with a bit more panache — and it's possible that e-commerce sites might be willing to license Delightfully's technology to differentiate their e-certificates.

You can sign up now to be notified when Delightfully launches later this month. Initially, you'll be able to use the technology to send someone a gift code that you purchase, as part of a separate transaction, from just about any e-commerce site.