JUST REWARDS

BILT, THE STARTUP THAT OFFERS LOYALTY PROGRAM POINTS FOR PAYING YOUR RENT, IS BUILDING A $1-BILLION-A-YEAR BUSINESS BY BECOMING THE REWARDS PROGRAM FOR LIFE'S EVERY EXPENSE.

- Ainsley Harris

THE NIGHT IS YOUNG WHEN BILT REWARDS FOUNDER AND CEO ANKUR Jain steps inside Manhattan’s ABC Cocina restaurant on a Monday in early spring. Vintage chandeliers glint overhead as the 35-year-old Jain, in jeans and sneakers, makes his way through the crowd, shaking hands, his winsome smile comfortably affixed. We're here for a recurring comedy show that’s offered to members of Bilt, the loyalty program and payments platform for renters that Jain founded in 2019. As usual, the show sold out through a combination of dollars and Bilt points in minutes. As we find our seats, Jain disappears briefly, reemerging with martinis.

Over the next hour, a half dozen comedians take the stage to deliver their takes on politics, parenting, dating, and more. Jain joins in on the biggest laughs, slapping the table in approval. And when the evening's last comedian takes a dig at Bilt itself, which has close to 5 million members and is valued at more than $3 billion, calling it a “cult” and suggesting that the audience rob its founder of his “billion dollars” that very night, Jain doesn’t flinch.

In a way, Bilt did start out as a cult—one aimed at credit card enthusiasts who collect points and miles with near-religious fervor. The startup first broke through with the Bilt Rewards Mastercard, which offers users rewards points for rent payments. The card launched to the public in March 2022 with a party at One Vanderbilt, Brooklyn’s tallest skyscraper. Mayor Eric Adams attended and A$AP Rocky performed. Credit cards are a cutthroat business, but no one had ever tried securing a place in the wallets of affluent young professionals by focusing on rent, the biggest financial burden for many. (In the U.S., residential tenants pay $750 billion in rent each year.) Eighteen months later, Bilt had activated more than a million accounts and won over the kind of reward maximizers who treat