I Love Rewards, which operates employee rewards and sales incentive recognition programs for companies, has secured a $5.9 million ($6.9 million in Canadian dollars) in Series B funding led by GrandBanks Capital with prior investors JLA Ventures and Laurence Capital participating. The company raised $4 million in Series A funding in 2008 from JLA Ventures and Laurence Capital.
The company says the funding will be used to expand its sales and marketing efforts. I Love Rewards operates employee rewards and recognition, sales incentive and service award programs for corporations, including Microsoft, Marriott, ConAgra and Bell. Rewards are distributed as ‘points’ that are then used by employees to choose brand name reward merchandise (i.e. Apple), experiences (i.e. travel and special events), gift cards and virtual awards (i.e. music downloads).
“I Love Rewards operates employee rewards and recognition, sales incentive and service award programs for corporations, including Microsoft……… Rewards are distributed as ‘points’ that are then used by employees to choose brand name reward merchandise (i.e. Apple)”
I like it. They help Microsoft employees get a Mac!
good company.
I could be wrong . . . but from their site . . . it looks like they are targeting businesses with 100+ employees. Which makes sense due to the level of service they are offering to provide, the businesses need to be big enough to pay for the “I Love Rewards” service (no pricing available, they do have a nice ROI tool . . . but doesn’t include cost of the ILR service.
I see an even larger opportunity for a solution that is lighter on the personal service and targets small businesses with less than 100 employees (e.g. – 1 to 99).
Incenting and rewarding for measurable performance applies to every business.
unhappy-face logo.
Not good.
I love this company – and know them well. I coached and mentored there team for almost a year in 2007/2008.
They are not only a fantastic group of people – they’re also building a product that thousands of companies will be using to make their companies a better place to work too.
JLA Ventures is smart to be investing their money and time in I Love Rewards.
Great job everyone.
Cameron
ILR is an amazing company with passionate and committed leadership
$6.9 Million in this economic climate!?!?! They must be doing something right!
I worked at ILoveRewards from 2006-2008, and I loved every minute of it! They know how to work hard, but they *definitely* know how to play hard, too. They have the strongest culture I’ve ever seen, a “first date” dress code, and a committment to “living the values”. They all know what’s expected of them, and they deliver more than they promise. If you’re ever in the area, drop by their office in Toronto at 11am. You’ll get to sit in on their daily 15 minute company-wide meeting, called “To The Point”. You won’t regret it.
P.S. – I only left to move in with my girlfriend who lived in another city.
I read about ILoveRewards a week or so ago in a Profit Magazine article. Great company with great leadership; glad to hear they raised another round.
The firm is definitely one of the most progressive HR practitioners in Canada, which is the subject of the PROFIT Magazine article mentioned above by Jon Kepler: http://tinyurl.com/ozce8k
Also, I Love Rewards has ranked on the PROFIT 100 list of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies: http://www.profit100.com I’ve always been surprised by how few PROFIT 100 companies raise venture capital before they make the list, and equally surprised by how many get almost overwhelmed with offers of financing after they make the list.