Jackpot Rewards Raises $12M

Jackpot Rewards, a Newton, MA-based startup that runs cash-back rewards programs and sweepstakes for online shoppers, has raised just over $12 million in new financing in the form of convertible debt, according to regulatory documents filed today. We profiled the company in February 2008, when it first announced its plans to give away a $1 million jackpot every week; the company generated controversy later that spring by making the prizes much more difficult to win, a decision explained by CEO Jim Miller as part of a shift to an emphasis on the company’s cash-back rewards program. According to today’s filing, $250,000 of the debt-based financing will be paid to executives or directors of the company. Jackpot Rewards has raised at least $16 million in equity financing from a group of individual investors including former Fidelity Magellan fund manager Peter Lynch.

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/