Today, social and mobile gifting company Treater ( www.treater.com ) officially launched out of private beta. Treater gives users the ability to instantly send gifts like a coffee or an after-work cocktail to friends on their mobile devices.

Treater today also announced $2.5 million in seed funding from a mix of funds and angel investors. This round of funding brings several additions to Treater's Board of Directors: Fred Schaufeld, Managing Director of SWaN Investments and founder and Vice Chairman of NEW Asurion Corporation; Jack Davies, founder and former President of AOL International; and Gene Riechers, former General Partner at Valhalla Partners.

More meaningful than a "like" or a post, but less formal than a present, Treater makes it easy for friends to instantly send and receive "Treats." Bad day at work? Treat a cocktail. Belated birthday wishes? Send a cupcake or movie tickets. Treater is an ideal way to send a thoughtful, but quick gift for any casual, spontaneous moment, and redeeming a Treat is as simple as launching an app on a smartphone.

"We've created an app that makes it easy to connect with others in a meaningful way," said Jeff Ross, CEO of Treater. "Treater's mobile capabilities let users instantly send a Treat at the very moment they are thinking of a friend. Since we have a selection of Treats at different price points, it's easy to send something thoughtful to a larger circle of friends."

Giving a Treat takes just a few seconds. Treat givers choose a friend and select a Treat -- items range from a frozen yogurt to a pint of beer to movie tickets or even a lunch out. Ever social, Treater lets the sender include a personal message and photo, too. The Treat is instantly delivered to the recipient's smartphone via Facebook wall post, text message or email. Redemption is just as easy. At checkout, the recipient shows the "Treat Card" on their smartphone to redeem their Treat. It's as simple as paying with a credit card or store-branded gift card. Treater even makes it fun to send thank you notes by letting you add a quick photo and message that posts back to your friend's Facebook wall.

Offering added convenience and flexibility, recipients can keep the change. If a Treat recipient spends less than the Treat Card's value, any leftovers are deposited to a "PiggyBank" and can be used by the recipient toward a new Treat for themselves or someone else. Treater users will never have a pile of unused gift cards with small amounts of money leftover, as all their Treats and PiggyBank credits live on their smartphones, literally at their fingertips.

For merchants, Treater provides a new social marketing acquisition channel and increases the frequency of engagement with existing customers. Treater increases brand awareness and allows merchants to interact via the social graph with their customers and fan base. In turn, Treat redemptions drive traffic to their physical store locations. The redemption process is seamless, since Treat Cards work just like a credit card or store-branded gift card, requiring no additional staff training or changes to the point-of-sale systems.

"People love giving and receiving gifts, but traditional gift-giving is time consuming and we often forget to buy a gift in the first place," said Fred Schaufeld, Managing Director at SWaN Investors. "Treater's frictionless gift-giving process is making social media more social by letting people show they care with a Treat. What's more, it's a clear win for merchants -- driving foot traffic through their doors and letting them engage with consumers in a trusted relationship."

About Treater Treater is a social gifting platform that lets users send real Treats, instantly. "Treating" friends to gifts, meals or drinks is as easy as accessing your social networks online or on your smartphone. Each "Treat" is an electronic, one-time use payment card that is item specific and delivered via Facebook post, email or text to a smartphone to redeem for items at restaurants and retail stores. For merchants, Treater provides valuable brand impressions on social networks across desktop and mobile platforms and enables them to promote specific products and services to new and existing customers. For more information on Treater, please visit www.treater.com .