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Denver-based offline loyalty program Plink bets that rewarding customers digitally for their real-life activities is the way to drive sales. “We're an online to offline loyalty program providing consumers with rewards for shopping and eating at their favorite stores and restaurants,” says CEO and co-founder Peter Vogel.

Members who shop at partner locations – which range from Burger King to 7-Eleven to Regal Cinemas – typically earn back 10 percent of their purchase in Plink Points. These Points, worth one penny each, come as rewards for spending at any of 35,000 nationwide locations. Users can accumulate points and redeem them in increments of as little at $5.

“Many programs make you accumulate enough to earn a $20 gift card before your first gift card, but at Plink we wanted to make it as easy and rewarding for users as possible, so we set the level at $5,” Vogel says. When redeemed, users receive gift cards for the earned value from a variety of retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, iTunes and Gap. Vogel says the rewards catalog grows and changes based on consumer demand.

Plink was incubated in Denver by Adperio, a company whose success in the loyalty marketing and virtual rewards space inspired Vogel. “We built Plink to drive the same sort of performance-based marketing results for offline brands, large restaurants and retailers,” he says. Vogel took cues from Adperio’s 15 years of success in Denver, citing their ability to draw from the city’s talent pool. He has found that people are willing to move here to work, contributing to an already-strong base of high-tech and entrepreneurial talent.

So far this year, Plink raised $633,000 in a friends and family round. They also raised $3 million in August in a Series A found funded entirely by Grotech Ventures. Looking ahead, Vogel says Plink aims to top 1 million members (they’re currently over 200,000) and 100,000 reward-eligible locations, as well as to represent 25 national brands, by the end of the year.

Visit Plink’s website, check out their Built In Denver profile, and follow them on Twitter at @plinkdotcom.