Bilt's $250 Million Raise: Reshaping Housing & Finance

A new model emerges at the intersection of housing payments, loyalty ecosystems, and local commerce

In today's fragmented fintech and proptech markets, clear differentiation is increasingly challenging. Yet, Bilt, the innovative loyalty and payment platform focused on housing, recently made headlines with a $250 million funding round led by General Catalyst, GID, and strategic investment from United Wholesale Mortgage, pushing its valuation to a remarkable $10.75 billion.

Beyond Traditional Credit Cards

At first glance, Bilt may seem like another fintech player with a compelling rewards credit card. However, its business model diverges fundamentally from traditional credit issuers. Instead of acting as a bank, Bilt leverages partnerships, previously with Wells Fargo and soon with Cardless, to handle backend financial services. Its core value isn't credit issuance, but rather the integration of housing payments into a comprehensive, fee-free loyalty ecosystem. While tenants can traditionally pay rent via credit cards, they typically incur steep transaction fees, negating the rewards. Bilt has disrupted this by enabling tenants to pay rent and mortgage without extra charges, earning valuable rewards on their largest monthly expenses.

Strategic Synergy: Housing Payments and Neighborhood Commerce

What truly differentiates Bilt is its ecosystem-driven approach. By partnering with property managers representing 70% of the top 100 apartment companies nationwide, Bilt has rapidly grown its housing network. Now serving one in four apartment buildings in the U.S., the company has expanded into condominiums, HOAs, student housing (notably through partnerships like Blackstone's American Campus Communities), and mortgages. United Wholesale Mortgage’s $100 million investment underscores Bilt’s entry into the mortgage sector, indicating how traditional financial services perceive Bilt as a strategic partner in reshaping customer loyalty and engagement.

Beyond housing payments, Bilt connects residents with local merchants, including restaurants, fitness studios, and neighborhood businesses, creating localized loyalty economies. This hyperlocal approach not only generates additional revenue streams (expected to exceed $10 billion annually driven to neighborhood merchants) but also reinforces customer retention and community engagement. The impact is substantial: by year-end, Bilt projects processing over $100 billion in annual housing spend, with annual revenues expected to surpass $1 billion by Q1 2026.

Who Is Bilt Serving?

Bilt’s ideal customer profile extends beyond the affluent urban renter, though they are certainly core to its strategy. Its true strength lies in its triangulated market: residents eager for rewards on essential living expenses, property managers seeking enhanced resident retention and streamlined payments, and neighborhood merchants looking to strengthen local customer relationships.

Notably, over 85% of Bilt’s users now engage with the platform independently of its branded credit card, a significant indicator of its broader adoption as a payments and loyalty ecosystem, rather than merely a financial product.

Implications for the Fintech-Proptech Landscape

Bilt's recent funding milestone marks a broader shift in how fintech, housing, and localized commerce intersect. The company has effectively defined a new market category, demonstrating that the future of real estate technology extends far beyond property management software and marketplaces. By embedding financial incentives deeply into housing and local economies, Bilt is reshaping consumer behavior around their most significant expenditures.

Its expansion into mortgages, driven by partnerships like United Wholesale Mortgage, suggests potential for significant market disruption, especially if it can successfully convert mortgage servicing into a loyalty-driven, consumer-centric experience.

Looking Ahead

Bilt’s ambitious plans, including the launch of Bilt Card 2.0 in early 2026, illustrate its strategy of consumer engagement and continuous innovation. The upcoming products, informed by extensive user feedback, will offer tiered loyalty experiences tailored to diverse consumer needs, underscoring the platform’s adaptability and customer-centric ethos.