November 02 2026
Ankur Jain: The Indian-American entrepreneur turning rent payments into rewards with Bilt
(Nov 2, 2026) Ankur Jain, founder and CEO of Bilt, has built the first major loyalty programme that allows renters in the US to earn points on rent payments and build a path towards homeownership. From founding Humin and working with Tinder to establishing Kairos and building Bilt, the Wharton graduate has pursued businesses that address everyday challenges. In December 2025, Forbes ranked him 19th among the world’s richest self-made billionaires under 40, with an estimated net worth of $3.4 billion.
For most people, rent is among their largest monthly expenses, yet it traditionally offers little in return beyond a place to live. Ankur Jain saw an opportunity to change that. As founder and CEO of Bilt, he developed the first major loyalty programme that allows renters in the United States to earn points on their monthly rent payments while building a path towards homeownership.
The programme was developed in partnership with an alliance of some of the country’s largest multifamily property owners and operators, representing two million apartment units across the US. It brings together property managers, renters, merchants and financial institutions through a rewards ecosystem built around housing.
Bilt also partnered with Mastercard and Wells Fargo to introduce the Bilt Mastercard, described as the first and only credit card that allows users to pay rent at any apartment without transaction fees.
The proposition goes beyond collecting rewards. Members can use their points for airline miles, hotel stays, purchases and future rent payments. The programme also enables renters to report on-time payments to credit bureaus, helping them establish credit histories and work towards eventual homeownership.
“Can paying your rent for the first time now earn you airline miles, hotel points? Can it build your credit history? And can it help you get closer to home ownership?” Ankur said in a podcast conversation, explaining the questions behind the business.
Building the platform required bringing together stakeholders with different priorities. Landlords wanted to understand the value of joining, rewards partners wanted access to a substantial property network, and merchants needed evidence of a customer base.
Ankur described this as a chicken-and-egg problem. For nearly two years, he approached property owners in New York, often receiving encouraging responses without securing commitments. Rather than abandon the idea, he explored additional ways to make rental payments more valuable. One was to use a renter’s payment history to help build credit.
This involved navigating an established financial system in which people often needed a credit history to access credit, while having limited opportunities to establish one without already participating in the system.
Ankur spent 18 months in Washington DC speaking with housing authorities, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, lenders and credit agencies. The objective was to establish a framework through which on-time rent payments could be recognised in credit assessments. The regulatory approvals came through in October 2019, creating an opportunity to incorporate rent-payment reporting into Bilt’s proposition.
The company began developing its business in 2018 and reached the market in 2022. The pandemic also helped bring different stakeholders together, as property managers, airlines and local businesses looked for new ways to attract and retain customers.
An immigrant family’s entrepreneurial influence
Ankur’s understanding of entrepreneurship began at home, long before he founded his own companies. His parents’ journey to the United States and their decision to build a technology business gave him an early view of the uncertainty, sacrifice and commitment involved in starting from scratch.
My father grew up in a poor village outside Delhi, while my mother grew up in Israel, moving frequently because her father worked with the United Nations. Both came to the United States with limited resources and worked hard to establish themselves.
Ankur Jain
His father’s first significant career opportunity came when he was invited to interview for a junior-level position at Microsoft in Seattle. At the time, the company was still in its early years.
When Ankur was around five or six, his parents decided to pursue their own entrepreneurial ambitions. They left their jobs, invested their life savings and started a technology company together. Ankur and his siblings became familiar with startup life at an early age. After school, they would be dropped off at the office, where they did their homework, played games and watched their parents work through meetings and business challenges.
Looking back, he believes this exposure gave him a practical understanding of the effort behind entrepreneurial success.
He recalled his father’s response when asked whether he felt guilty about balancing work and family life. Rather than suggesting that children only benefit from parents spending leisure time with them, his father believed there was value in letting them witness the work that went into building a business and the life that followed. Ankur said he and his siblings saw their parents build companies from the ground up, gaining firsthand exposure to both the hard work and the satisfaction of entrepreneurship.
“We caught the bug early,” he said in a podcast. “I don’t know if we even had a choice with how early we caught it.”
From Wharton to building companies
Ankur’s entrepreneurial journey began well before Bilt. A graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he completed his business education. He went on to found Humin, a technology company focused on rethinking how people manage and organise their contacts. As its founder and CEO, he developed a product that used contextual information to make personal connections easier to navigate.
Humin attracted $15 million in funding before being acquired by Tinder in 2016. Following the acquisition, Ankur joined Tinder as vice president of product, working with what was then the world’s largest social network for meeting people. His work also brought further recognition. Forbes named him to its 30 Under 30 list in 2015, and in 2017 the World Economic Forum selected him as a Young Global Leader.
Kairos: Building businesses around pressing problems
Ankur’s entrepreneurial interests have consistently extended beyond technology products and consumer applications. He has been interested in building companies that address challenges affecting everyday life.
He founded Kairos in 2008 as an initiative supporting young entrepreneurs and subsequently developed it into a venture studio focused on building companies around major societal challenges. After his time at Tinder, he rejoined Kairos in 2017, turning his attention to businesses addressing areas such as housing, healthcare, transportation and other essential services.
The Kairos portfolio has helped launch and grow companies valued at more than $6.5 billion, with a focus on making essential services, particularly housing and healthcare, more affordable. He has also extended his involvement in innovation and global affairs beyond his own companies. Ankur serves on the innovation board of the XPRIZE Foundation and is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy.
Persistence over quick wins
Ankur’s approach to entrepreneurship is rooted in staying committed to the problem rather than becoming attached to a particular solution.
I don’t think about giving up. No just means ask again differently sometimes.
Ankur Jain
For him, a refusal from a prospective partner does not necessarily mean an idea has no merit. It could mean the opportunity has not been explained well enough or that the proposition needs to be adapted to make it work for both sides.
He also questions the practice of measuring a startup’s progress primarily through revenue targets or user numbers set against fixed deadlines.
“I don’t believe in setting goals that are like have to hit X number of users or X million of revenue by this date as your primary north star,” he said. Instead, he prefers to identify a user problem and remain focused on solving it.
This thinking also informs his views on raising capital. Ankur believes founders should consider financing early development through personal resources, trusted networks and commercial partners before turning to venture capital. Commercial partners, he explained, are often invested in solving the business problem itself, rather than primarily seeking a rapid financial return. This can give founders greater freedom to take the time needed to get a product right.
Bilt’s development reflected that approach. Ankur initially self-funded the business before bringing real estate owners on board as commercial partners and investors. He wanted them to have a stake in building the platform alongside the company.
Looking beyond the next technology trend
Having worked in Silicon Valley, Ankur has seen the startup ecosystem evolve. But he believes the emphasis on emerging technologies and investment trends can sometimes distract entrepreneurs from the problems they originally set out to solve.
After selling Humin to Tinder in 2016, he remained with the company as vice president of product. The experience gave him an opportunity to work on a widely used consumer platform, but he was already thinking about what he wanted to pursue next.
He recalled questioning the direction of the startup ecosystem in 2017, when large amounts of capital were flowing into ventures that, in his view, did not address pressing social or economic needs. He pointed to housing, healthcare and mental health as areas where substantial problems remained unsolved.
Somewhere along the lines, I feel like we lost that why. Why do people do things? What happened to solving big problems in the world? There’s just too much of an echo chamber around these buzzwords where people stopped asking, ‘What is the problem you’re solving?’ and started focusing on what’s the hot new buzzword that venture capitalists will fund.
Ankur Jain
Ankur believes the original spirit of Silicon Valley was about building solutions rather than following whatever happened to be attracting investor attention. He is critical of founders who focus on the latest buzzwords, whether artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, NFTs or the metaverse, without first establishing the problem their businesses are meant to address.
His preference for problem-led entrepreneurship also shapes his view of where founders should work. While he acknowledges Silicon Valley’s role in technology and innovation, he sees New York’s diversity of industries and backgrounds as an advantage.
“At a dinner in New York, an entrepreneur might find themselves speaking with people from fashion, media, real estate, technology and finance. Such interactions can provide a broader understanding of how different people think and what they need.” By contrast, he feels that a more homogeneous startup environment can sometimes lead founders to build for one another rather than for the customers they are trying to serve. For Ankur, understanding the customer beyond the startup ecosystem is essential to building a useful business.
Recognition and global engagement
Over the years, Ankur has received recognition for his work in entrepreneurship and innovation. His early honours included Inc. magazine’s Best Connected 21-Year-Old in the World recognition and 30 Under 30 listing in 2011, the Christian Science Monitor’s 30 Under 30: Solution Broker recognition in 2012, and Forbes’ 30 Under 30 listing in 2015. In 2017, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader.
He also serves on the innovation board of the XPRIZE Foundation and is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, reflecting interests that extend beyond company building to innovation and international engagement.
In December 2025, Forbes ranked Ankur 19th on its list of the world’s richest self-made billionaires under 40, estimating his net worth at $3.4 billion. The recognition followed Bilt’s rapid growth and a reported valuation of approximately $10.8 billion in July 2025.
From his early exposure to his parents’ entrepreneurial journey to building businesses through Kairos, Humin and Bilt, Ankur’s career has been marked by an interest in solving problems that affect everyday life. His approach is to remain committed to the challenge, even when the route to a solution has to change.
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Written By: Amrita Priya
