Participated · Equity · Oct 2022

Bilt operates a payments and neighborhood commerce platform that lets members earn rewards on rent, HOA fees, mortgage payments, and everyday neighborhood spending. The company has grown from a card business into a full loyalty ecosystem partnered with property managers and more than 40,000 merchants. Its Bilt Alliance covers more than 4.5 million homes, has signed roughly 1-in-4 apartment buildings nationwide, and works with 70% of the nation’s top 100 property managers. More than 85% of members use Bilt’s platform without the Bilt card, and the company processes payments across ACH, debit and credit rails. Bilt expects to cross $1 billion in revenue by Q1 2026, to process over $100 billion in housing spend by year-end, and to drive over $10 billion annually to neighborhood merchants. The platform includes an AI-powered neighborhood concierge, a marketplace to drive local commerce, and value-added services for property managers. Bilt Rewards operates a resident loyalty program and a neighborhood loyalty program that let renters earn points on rent and local spending and allow merchants to run targeted campaigns. The platform partners with large multifamily owners and operators and covers renters in more than four million units, with members in all 50 states. Bilt offers one-to-one point transfers to 18 loyalty programs, a travel portal, fitness bookings, an online collection of goods, and redemptions that include rent credits and down-payment assistance. The company is expanding beyond apartments into condominiums, single-family homes and plans to include mortgage payments later this year, while growing into categories like healthcare, gas, and groceries. Operational metrics cited in the articles include platform spend of over $30 billion annually (a 50% increase since January), more than 21,000 restaurant partners and 3,500 fitness studios, and partnerships with seven of the 10 largest multifamily managers. Bilt says it will use new capital to further scale its neighborhood loyalty program and merchant relationships across the country. Bilt Rewards operates a loyalty and payments platform that enables members to earn points and build credit when they pay rent and spend at local merchants. Points can be redeemed across airlines, hotels, travel, fitness classes, Amazon purchases, rent credit or toward a future down payment. The company also issues a co-branded Mastercard through Wells Fargo with no transaction fees for rent payments. Bilt reports annualized member spend nearing $20 billion and says it achieved EBITDA profitability in 2023. Its loyalty program has expanded from more than 2.5 million apartment units at the time of its last raise to nearly 4 million units today. Bilt plans to use new capital to grow its Rewards Alliance with multifamily, single-family, and student housing operators, bolster its Neighborhood Rewards program for local merchants, and expand into mortgage payment rewards. Bilt Rewards works with large multifamily owners and operators to offer a loyalty program and co-branded credit card that allow renters to earn points and improve credit via monthly rent payments. The platform has been rolled out to more than 2.5 million apartment units and has over half a million customers across its loyalty program and credit card. Bilt reports processing over $3.5 billion in annualized rent payments and over $1.6 billion in annualized card spend, with both figures rising significantly in the last 90 days. Launched in June 2021 out of the Kairos startup studio by founder and CEO Ankur Jain, the company has raised about $213 million in total funding to date. Bilt recently launched Bilt Homes, a tool that shows members homes they could buy for the same monthly payment as rent using real-time rates and personal data, and continues to offer free rent reporting to help boost credit. The company said it reached profitability earlier this year and plans to keep much of the new capital in reserves while focusing on core commercial partnerships and longer-term opportunities including a possible IPO or acquisitions. Bilt Rewards operates a loyalty program that lets renters earn points on rent payments with no fees and via a co-branded Bilt Mastercard. The company launched in June out of the Kairos startup studio and has rolled out across over 2 million rental units, addressing roughly 109 million U.S. renters. Members can earn up to 50,000 points on rent per year, accrue unlimited points on the card, and benefit from a 0-1-2-3 points structure (1x rent, 2x travel, 3x dining, 1x other purchases) with no annual fee. Bilt worked with regulators, Fannie Mae and HUD to allow points to be applied toward a mortgage and offers rent-reporting to credit bureaus and a concierge for members redeeming points toward home down payments. The company reports about 20% enrollment among residents in participating properties and has added new member benefits including interest paid as points and bonus points for new leases and renewals. Bilt says it will use the new funding to expand its real estate and loyalty partner network, grow distribution channels and make its credit-card product more widely available while positioning to eventually become a mortgage provider.

Participated · Series C · Oct 2020

Alfred, founded in 2014, is a New York-based residential technology company that provides the Alfred Operating System (AOS), a platform for residential management. AOS centralizes resident management, on-site operations and maintenance, payments, community amenities, smart package integrations, digital lease signing, utility and energy management, predictive building health, vendor management, and white-glove moving services. The company already serves over 143,000 units across 44 U.S. and Canadian markets. Alfred announced the strategic acquisition of RKW Residential, its first property-management acquisition, which brings roughly 30,000 single-family and multi-family rentals in markets including Miami, Charlotte, and Atlanta onto its platform. AOS will continue being available to all Alfred partners, and the RKW deal is intended to accelerate adoption of Alfred’s platform across those units. Alfred has previously acquired HOM, Bixby, and WunWun to add wellness, property-management technology, and on-demand services into AOS. Alfred is an end-to-end resident experience and building management platform operating at the intersection of real estate and technology. The company builds personal, in-home support into residential buildings through its Alfred Home Managers, whom it hires as W-2 employees with benefits and training. Alfred says it currently serves over 100,000 homes in 20 markets across the United States. The platform aims to integrate neighborhood investment and local entrepreneurship into residential services. Recent recognition includes being named a Fast Company Top 50 Most Innovative Company and coverage in major outlets such as The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The company plans to use new financing to grow its team and operations and capture market share amid record-high demand for in-home services. Hello Alfred operates a subscription-based home-hospitality service in which full-time W-2 "Home Managers" perform weekly domestic tasks such as sorting mail, taking out the trash and picking up groceries for subscribers. The company currently serves about 10,000 homes and operates in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Boston, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles. With its Series B, Hello Alfred plans to scale to serve 100,000 homes by the end of the year and intends to double the size of its team in 2018. The company will also invest further in its technology and data operations and expand its own line of home goods, Alfred Home Essentials, while growing partnerships with vendors and real estate developers. Hello Alfred emphasizes a human-centric model—employing Home Managers as full-time staff rather than relying on contractors—to build familiarity with clients. The company is profitable and has been paying employee salaries out of profits since launch. Hello Alfred operates a $99-per-month subscription that assigns each customer a home manager, called an Alfred, to automate weekly chores or handle spontaneous texted requests. Alfreds perform tasks directly and coordinate outside services like Handy and Instacart to clean, deliver and restock, unwrap dry-cleaning, and shine shoes. The service originally launched in Boston, has gone live in New York, and plans to launch in San Francisco in June while accepting waitlist sign-ups. The company says it has completed 18,000 runs for customers, including dry-cleaning 57,600 shirts, delivering 3,326 pounds of dog food, and placing 1,280 flower arrangements. CEO Marcela Sapone said the funding will be used to "step on the gas and scale the Alfred experience to a wider base of customers." The company recently hired Foursquare’s Jason Liszka to lead its engineering team. Alfred provides a membership service that assigns a dedicated in-home assistant who visits twice weekly to handle groceries, laundry, cleaning, package handling, tailoring, shoe repair, prescription pick-up and other household tasks. The service integrates with on-demand APIs such as Handy and Instacart and focuses on completing the last-mile work (putting away groceries, removing packaging, etc.). Alfred was in beta for almost a year in Boston and for several months in New York, and the company has revamped its back end based on what it learned. During beta Alfreds logged over 10,000 hours of work. Alfreds are employed full-time with health benefits rather than treated as contract workers. The service is invite-only, costs $100/month (excluding groceries and paid cleanings), and has launched in New York following its Boston beta.