Rakuten Rewards was founded as Ebates in 1998 in
Menlo Park, California, by two former deputy district attorneys, Alessandro Isolani and Paul Wasserman. Funded by the
venture capital firm
Foundation Capital, Ebates.com was launched on 3 May 1999, offering up to 25% cash back from about 40 online retailers. In September 2014, Ebates was acquired by the Japanese e-commerce company
Rakuten for US$1 billion. In 2019, the Ebates brand was phased out and replaced with Rakuten Rewards. == Acquisitions ==