Spring Rewards, a Chicago startup that worked with businesses throughout the country to offer rewards programs to their customers, abruptly shut down at the end of June.
The tech company, founded by Bruce Mitchell and Jonathan Dyke in 2012, announced in a June 21 email to its users that it was shuttering its program and that they only had days to use any accrued rewards. Spring Rewards officially shut down June 27.
In a statement on its website, Spring Rewards said: “While we accomplished a great deal, we also were not able to realize large parts of our plans and vision. Unfortunately, it has now become time for Spring Rewards to make the difficult decision to discontinue operations. We hope you’ve enjoyed saving with us as much as we’ve enjoyed rewarding you.”
Mitchell and Ed D'Onofrio, Spring Rewards’ vice president of business development, did not respond to requests for comment as of press time. A Facebook message sent to Spring Rewards' company page on Tuesday was read and not answered.
Spring Rewards’ platform allowed users to register their credit and debit cards so that when they used them at participating businesses, they would earn cash back when hitting certain spending thresholds. Besides Chicago, Spring Rewards operated in several other cities across the country, including Nashville, Austin and San Francisco.
Local businesses that used Spring Rewards’ platform included Sopraffina Marketcaffe and Sweetwater Tavern and Grill. Both restaurants told CBS Chicago that the shutdown seemed abrupt and unfair to their customers who regularly used Spring Rewards’ system.
It is unclear how many people Spring Rewards employed at the time of its closing, but the company’s LinkedIn page showed it employed 20 people as of press time.
According to Crunchbase, the tech company had raised $2.3 million in venture capital funding from local investment firms like Chicago Ventures, Jump Capital and Pritzker Group Venture Capital.
In 2017, the Illinois Secretary of State revoked Spring Rewards’ certificate to conduct business in the state for failing to file required annual reports and pay annual franchise taxes, according to CBS Chicago’s report.
Spring Rewards refuted the issue, telling CBS “we have not had anything revoked by any governmental agency.” However, the Secretary of State’s office says it plans to pursue back taxes, penalties and interest from the company, according to CBS.
