Badgeville raises $2.5M for rewards platform

The company is backed by angels and execs from eBay, Panatir, PayPal, Chegg, and more

Badgeville, a loyalty and rewards service platform, announced Monday the close of a $2.5 million Series A round of financing led by eBay COO Maynard Webb, Panatir founder Joe Lonsdale, and several senior executives from PayPal, Chegg, Shopping.com, DrugStore.com, and Warner Music.  The company previously raised $250,000 in seed funding.

Launched in September of this year, Badgeville’s services include a number of key features to help publishers drive user engagement and promote loyalty, including a customizable rewards program that allows clients to define the behaviors that are valuable to their companies and reward those behaviors in whatever way they see fit, be it points, badges, trophies, etc.  The service also includes a turnkey multi-widget solution that can also be customized to reward specific behaviors, as well as a flexible API.  Additionally, the company offers real-time analytics so that clients can track user engagement and keep tabs on things like who their top 100 visitors are, how many users have left comments or feedback, and more.

The company has seen some positive feedback of its own: it currently has 400 million page views under contract and is on track to see over $1 million in bookings by the end of 2010.  This latest round of funding will be used to continue to develop the product, support current large-scale clients, and ramp up hiring.  The company currently has 10 employees but plans to grow to include another 10 or 20 within the next year.

Recently, Badgeville has scored some big name partnerships, including Philadelphia Media Network, which has adopted Badgeville to reward visitors for going to Philly.com and reading or commenting on articles, browsing through photos, or watching online videos.

“We are always looking for ways to create deeper engagement with our 4.5 million philly.com unique users each month, and we are excited to launch this new platform and enhance the online experience for our readers,” said Jeff Berger, vice president and CIO of Philadelphia Media Network Inc., in a prepared statement.

Other partners include Comcast Sports, The Next Web, and Blackbook.

The company has also made some big waves at tech conferences and competitions, winning the Audience Choice award at TechCrunch Disrupt in September. 

“Everybody realizes that they want what Foursquare and Farmville have. In the future, virtually every serious web brand will have techniques from social gaming to engage users. We’re the company to do that,” said Badgeville founder and CEO Kris Duggan to TechCrunch.

Image source: badgeville.com