500Friends Inc., developer of a social loyalty and rewards platform for retailers, has raised $5.9 million in Series A financing, according to a SEC filings. 36 separate investors participated in the offering.

500friends, a 2010 Y-Combinator graduate, is the leading social loyalty platform for the retail category. 500friends' white label social loyalty platform enables leading e-commerce retailers to increase profits by tracking, rewarding, and recognizing behaviors that matter to their brand, which can range from referring a friend, uploading a product photo on their fan page, to frequent purchasing. The results are increased marketing performance metrics across the board: customer retention, customer acquisition, conversion rates, average order values, and SERP rankings.

The company's team includes e-commerce experts from Buy.com, eBillme, RichRelevance, StrongMail, Digitas, IAC/InterActive Corp., Accertify, and Webloyalty.