Bilt Makes Another Big Move, Partners With Venmo

Bilt’s big month continued this week with an announced partnership with one of the most popular payment apps, Venmo.

PayPal, the parent company of Venmo, revealed the team-up at Money20/20 in Las Vegas. The partnership will enable users to make rent and mortgage payments through Venmo, as well as conduct commerce with local merchants.

Beginning early next year, Bilt members can make payments through a Venmo option. They can pay for their rent or mortgages either through the Bilt app or through the Venmo app, using their Venmo balance.

Users will accumulate Bilt Points that can be redeemed for various reward options. The deal could greatly expand Bilt’s reach, as Venmo counts nearly 100 million active accounts; Bilt counts slightly more than 5 million members today.

“By combining Venmo’s reach, simplicity, and social connectivity with Bilt’s rewarding rent and neighborhood commerce network, we’re giving millions of renters more flexibility with how they pay and more value every single month,” Bilt founder Ankur Jain said in a statement.

The partnership is the latest step in what appears to be a rapid reinvention of Bilt’s capabilities.

Two weeks ago, Bilt partnered with United Wholesale Mortgage to allow homeowners to earn points when they make timely payments on new or existing mortgages through UWM, the first home lender partnership Bilt has formed. UWM is one of the nation’s largest mortgage providers and recently invested $100 million in Bilt.

That points program is also expected to launch early next year.

Bilt also recently signed a 58,000-square-foot lease with Nuveen to take over the former Samsung building at 837 Washington Street in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. The company struck a deal to receive up to $6.25 million in tax credits under the state’s Excelsior Jobs Program, incentivizing growing companies to stay in New York.

Bilt’s rewards platform has relationships with more than 45,000 merchants and 25 percent of apartment buildings in the country, according to the company. The company hit a $10.8 billion valuation over the summer.