UpLift has raised $8.2 million in its Series A financing, led by IDG Ventures. Also participating in the funding were PAR Capital Ventures, Thayer Ventures and key travel industry executives.

UpLift partners with merchants to empower payment influence. The company serves a number of vertical markets, including travel, e-commerce and nonprofits, to drive merchant loyalty, build merchant brand affinity and create long-lasting customer and donor relationships. UpLift provides merchants with real-time payment analytics that show cardholder attributes, expose new revenue opportunities, increase conversion rates and support ongoing performance monitoring.

This financing enables UpLift to expand its platform applications for both merchants and third party service providers, introduce UpLift into new verticals, and integrate additional data sources for all its markets.

'After 50 years of the status quo, changing regulations and technical innovations are revolutionizing our everyday payment systems. To build on this changing landscape, UpLift is re-inventing the marketing infrastructure to efficiently drive demand for leading payment types,' said Brian Barth, CEO and co-founder of UpLift.

'We're investing in UpLift's Payment Marketing Platform as it's truly shifting the balance of power toward merchants by enabling them to turn payments into a competitive advantage. With UpLift, payments can now drive loyalty and profitability,' said Alex Rosen, managing director of IDG Ventures.

'I have witnessed this team's ability to realize its innovative vision and fundamentally change an industry. Like many formerly revolutionary technologies such as revenue management, metasearch and off-host faring, UpLift has the potential to be an essential technology for top merchants,' said Paul Reeder, president of PAR Capital Ventures.

Led by a proven management team, UpLift is founded by Brian Barth and Stu Kelly, co-founders of SideStep. SideStep invented the travel metasearch business and was acquired by Kayak in 2007 for $200 million. In 2012, Priceline purchased Kayak for $1.8 billion.

About UpLift:

UpLift's Payment Marketing Platform empowers large online merchants to promote preferred payment types, drive acquisition and increased usage of merchant co-branded cards, build brand loyalty and propel channel shift. Working initially with travel companies, e-commerce merchants and nonprofits, UpLift's payment analytics enables merchants to gain real-time payment insights, influence payment choice and optimize transaction results. UpLift is easy to implement and compatible with all payment processors. Learn how your company can transform payments from a cost of doing business into a competitive advantage at www.UpLift.com.

About IDG Ventures:

IDG Ventures USA is an independent boutique venture capital firm, based in San Francisco. IDG Ventures invests in early stage consumer and enterprise IT companies. Through a strategic relationship with IDG, the world's largest IT media company, IDG Ventures' portfolio companies get free access to significant sales and marketing resources. The firm is part of a global network of technology venture funds with approximately $3.7 billion under management and over 200 active portfolio companies in Asia and North America. Leading technology companies that IDG has backed include BabyCenter, Epiphany, Excite, F5 Networks, Funzio, Infoseek, Minted, Netscape, and Spinner.com in the US and Baidu, Ctrip, Focus Media, SouFun, Tencent, Tudou, Vancl and Vinagames in Asia.

About PAR Capital Ventures:

PAR Capital Ventures makes early-stage private investments in travel and technology companies. PAR Capital Ventures is managed by Paul A. Reeder, III. Separately, Mr. Reeder is also the president of PAR Capital Management, which manages a private investment fund with approximately $4 billion of assets under management. Through PAR Capital Management, Mr. Reeder was an early investor in ITA Software (acquired by Google NASDAQ: GOOG) and Zillow (NASDAQ: Z).

About Thayer Ventures:

Thayer Ventures is the only venture capital firm specifically focused on the hospitality industry. Since its founding in 2009 as Quest Hospitality Ventures, the firm has partnered with entrepreneurs to create, develop and build technology companies that will revolutionize the hospitality industry. Based in San Francisco, Thayer Ventures currently supports some of the world's leading travel technology companies, including Hipmunk, Nor1, TripBam, Liftopia, Adara Media, Duetto, newBrandAnalytics, and ID90T. Additional information is available on the company's website: www.thayerventures.com