Bilt Rewards Nets $60M in Funding

Bilt Rewards, which enables users paying rent the ability to accrue points to be redeemed on rewards, generated $60 million in a recent funding round, pushing its value to $350 million, according to a Tuesday (Sept. 21) report from Bloomberg. Top contributors included Mastercard Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co., with participation from SL Green Realty Corp., Blackstone Inc., AvalonBay Communities Inc., Equity Residential, Starwood Capital Group, Related Cos., Moinian Group, Blend Labs Inc. and Douglas Elliman.

The funding announcement comes a few months after Mastercard unveiled the Bilt Mastercard, which was created in conjunction with New York-based real estate startup Bilt Technologies, according to PYMNTS.

The card can be used at any rental unit or apartment with no fees. Each payment earns points which can be used for various items such as travel, rent credits and down payments on a home, according to PYMNTS.

The Bilt Mastercard can even be used to make rent payments at buildings that do not accept credit cards, according to PYMNTS. Cardholders simply pay via the Bilt app and a check is submitted to their landlord on their behalf. Tenants who rent through the Bilt Rewards Alliance network — which is comprised of real estate owners around the country — were among the first to use the card. The card launched to more than 2 million rental units in June.

Read more: Mastercard, Bilt Launch Credit Card to Use on Rent Payments

Bilt’s latest funding round sees the 2-year-old company striving to grow its loyalty program to include the remaining 40 million-plus rental households nationwide.

In addition to its partnership with Bilt, Mastercard also recently joined forces with Finland-based digital receipt platform ReceiptHero and Visa to provide an alternative to paper receipts. The move would allow more retailers the ability to send receipts to private and business customers digitally.

Related: ReceiptHero Partners With Mastercard, Visa to Accelerate Digital Receipt Adoption