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Earlier in the year, Bilt Rewards raised $200M at a $3.1B valuation and appointed Ken Chennault Chairman of the Board. Now we learn that they have raised another $150M via the Teaches’ Venture Growth (TVG), the late-stage venture and growth investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, with participation from existing investors and new endowments including Vanderbilt University Endowment and the University of Illinois Foundation. This puts the new valuation at $3.25 Billion – note I am a Bilt Rewards Investor and Advisor. ( Press Release here )
- The company’s platform spend has surged to over $30 billion annually,
- This is a 50% increase since the January raise
One area that Bilt is seeing the most growth is the resident loyalty program that has been adopted by 7 of the 10 largest multifamily managers, and the neighborhood loyalty program which now services 21k restaurants and 3500 fitness studios. In an interview Richard Kerr, Bilt’s VP of Travel, did with The Points Guy he mentioned that only 15% of all Bilt Rewards members have the Bilt Mastercard®, and I think that’s probably the biggest confusion over the program itself. Most people presume that it’s a card business when in fact it’s a loyalty program designed to compete with the best of them and the card is a small piece.
Ken Chenault, Chairman of Bilt & Chairman and Managing Director at General Catalyst, commented on the company’s trajectory: “In January, we recognized Bilt’s unique capture of loyalty in the previously untapped rental payments space. Today, Bilt is rapidly becoming the leading platform for driving neighborhood commerce. By connecting residents, property owners, and local businesses, we’re creating a powerful ecosystem that benefits all parties involved.”
This raise comes on the heals of Bilt’s Rent day losing it’s 10k point max…it will be 1k max bonus starting on October 1st. Kerr has this to say about the reduction in the Rent Day bonus:
For the Rent Day cap, we saw that less than 2% of cardmembers (or 0.3% of our total members) ever earned more than 1,000 bonus points during the Rent Day double points campaigns. By capping these bonuses at 1,000 points (effective Oct. 1), the outsize money that funded less than 2% of cardmembers could be better spent to make Rent Day bigger — like the transfer bonus to Alaska Mileage Plan and transfer bonuses of up to 150% to Aeroplan (February 2024).
From the conversations I’ve had with Bilt management as an advisor, I know that the program is focused on becoming the default loyalty program of neighborhoods and striving to onboard communities to provide more curated experiences based on your Bilt status when you dine or patron a local establishment ( see full list of dining programs ). I think this is a gaping hole in loyalty to begin with, much like Rent was, and Bilt is aiming to seize the opportunity. Sure, you can earn your credit card points when you dine at your favorite local Mexican restaurant, but what if you could also earn Bilt Rewards because you loaded that credit card into their app and double dip. This is already possible at 22k restaurants, but as they integrate this methodology further, Bilt can become the base points your earn in your neighborhood in addition to the credit card points you earn on the swipe. Think gas stations, pharmacies, dining, grocery stores, etc.
Now…if I can just convince them to partner with Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken, Swan, or River to earn Bilt Rewards on my Bitcoin purchases 🙂
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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