How a Prada bag inspired Ankur Jain to ditch California and start Bilt Rewards in NYC

Ankur Jains Bilt Rewards aims to disrupt America’s $700 billion residential real-estate industry and he tells The Post he left California for New York to make it happen.

Bilt, a loyalty program that gives users rewards for paying rent and spending in their neighborhood, is now valued at $3.25 billion. The three-year-old company nabbed American Express Chair Ken Chenault and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for its board, and regularly hosts glamorous parties attended by the likes of Mayor Eric Adams and musician Wyclef Jean.

But Jain said his idea to start a company that would help with a practical problem wasn’t met with much excitement in Silicon Valley.

After five years as vice-president of product at West Hollywood-based Tinder, which had bought his technology company Humin, Jain was ready for a change

When he got a call from a Silicon Valley king maker to talk about running a multimillion-dollar disrupter, he jumped at the chance.

This venture capitalist goes, ‘I got this big idea that’s going to change the world. Were going to put $100 million into this company, and you would be great for running it,’ Jain, 34, told The Post.

That big idea? Putting virtual luxury goods on the blockchain.

I go, ‘Sorry, what’? He [said, users] could have their own Prada bag in the metaverse that can’t be duplicated.

And I remember walking outside [in San Francisco] and there was a homeless person butt-naked humping a scooter in the middle of the street, with traffic stopped, and I’m thinking to myself: ‘You have the biggest housing crisis, a health care and mental health crisis here in the city And here you are sitting, talking to me about like, digital Prada bags on the blockchain.”

“It was so out of touch with not just big problems, but big opportunities.

That moment crystalized Jains decision to leave California after six years and pushed him to think about the biggest problem he could solve. The following year, he started Bilt to improve the renting experience.

Theres no bigger problem than housing it remains one of the highest expenses, Jain explained. According to the companys data, the average American renter spends around 30% of their income on housing each year.

Bilt publicly launched in 2022 as a payment processor for renters and a loyalty program that aimed to do for renters what hotel and airline loyalty programs did for travelers. Renters can redeem points on perks in their neighborhood like Soul Cycle classes or free dessert at a local restaurant.

The company has grown since then it now rewards condo owners for rent payments, offers a Bilt credit card that can be used to pay for rent without a transaction fee, and is working to get into the mortgage space as well

The company offers NYC Bilt members up to 10x points to visit neighborhood restaurants like Torrisi, The Grill and Tucci. The brand also has relationships with airlines including United, Emirates and KLM-Air France, as well as the Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton hotel chains, and credit-card holder and tenants in buildings using Bilt can book travel directly on Bilts website or app.

From the outside, Bilts ascent to unicorn status (a company valued at more than $1 billion) seemed to happen overnight.

Jain, grew up around Seattle, graduated from Wharton School of Business and was named to Forbes 30 under 30 in 2015.

He comes from tech royalty his father, Naveen, ran InfoSpace, which was worth $31 billion before the 2000 dot-com crash and, earlier this year, Jain’s wedding to former WWE wrestler Erika Hammond made it look like he was Egyptian royalty. They married in front of the Pyramids of Giza in a multi-million dollar blowout with performances by Robin Thicke and Lance Bass.

But, Jain said, getting a toehold in an established industry like real estate has required a lot of effort.

We spent two years trying to pitch this network idea with very little progress, candidly, Jain said of bringing together tenants, landlords, neighborhood merchants and travel partners. But it’s this chicken-and-egg problem where all the travel partners go, Well, who’s on board on the property side? The property guys go, Who’s on board on the merchant side?

Keeping the flywheel going brings its own challenges. In June, the Wall Street Journal reported Bilts relationships with credit card provider Wells Fargo may have soured and that Wells Fargo is losing as much as $10 million per month on the partnership.

Still, the company continues to forge ahead and expand. Just this week, Bilt announced a partnership with Walgreens that allows customers to spend from their FSA and HSA accounts using a Bilt card.

And Jain, whose company is headquartered in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood, said he loves the New York lifestyle At the office til 8PM out to have dinner with your friends at 6 a.m., back on the grind.

It’s not for everybody, but I love it. And I find that New York self-selects incredible people who want to do big things  not change the world with blockchain Prada purses.