• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, March 10, 2011

Clovr Media, a startup enabling card-linked offers online, has raised $8.3 million in a first-round funding led by Jeffrey Glass of Bain Capital Ventures and including prior investors Kepha Partners and Common Angels. The company previously raised a seed round of $1.5 million.  

Founded by former Three Screen Media CEO Tom Burgess, Clovr wants to carve a niche helping banks extend loyalty programs beyond their own sites into third-party advertising across the Web. The company's technology will power what it calls "loyalty 2.0" for banks by turning Web banners, text links, video and mobile ads into offers tied directly to consumers' debit and credit cards.

In an interview Thursday, Burgess declined to name any financial institutions or brands on board, but said the company's card-linked system would cover virtually all U.S. bank cardholders when it launches in two months. Clovr bills itself as the only service focused on putting card-linked offers directly into ads.

After customers sign up for offers through a bank card, Clovr can then retarget those people online with specific discounts or deals, based on their purchase history and intent, as well as contextual, demographic and other targeting criteria. When they click to receive an advertised offer, that action is linked to their card account and they receive a message confirming acceptance.

A customer ultimately gets a credit to their account equal to the amount of the offer. The aim is to drive more card transactions and build loyalty for banks, as well as more e-commerce or foot traffic for participating merchants and advertisers.

While some offers might be available to cardholders of any bank, banks could create exclusive offers with merchant partners targeted at their own customers, or certain cardholders among their customers. "Banks ask us, 'how do we differentiate ourselves?' The end result is, they're able to cut deals with certain brands and promote offers through a campaign by campaign model," said Burgess.

Clovr competes in the card-linked offers space with companies like Cardlytics and Offermatic, which Tuesday announced receiving $4.5 million in a first-round venture financing led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Through Offermatic, users register their card account and receive offers based on their purchase history via email.