“Can a rent-rewards loyalty network become the primary financial relationship for American renters and homeowners — owning the card, the payments rails, the merchant data layer, and eventually the path to homeownership?”
Founded in 2019 as Theo Rewards, Bilt launched in 2021 as the first loyalty program to award points on rent — America's largest household expense — via a co-branded credit card with Wells Fargo. After the Wells Fargo relationship soured over loss economics in 2023, Bilt executed a major stack overhaul in 2025, replacing Wells Fargo with a bespoke four-party structure (Column as chartered bank, Cardless as servicer, Fidem as capital provider, on Mastercard rails), signaling ambition beyond a single card product toward a full 'financial OS for home and neighborhood'. The 2025 acquisition of Banyan and the Adyen partnership extend Bilt's data and payment infrastructure well past rent into everyday merchant commerce.
Bilt discloses Column as its banking provider, with Column N.A. as its sponsor bank, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Bilt does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Column N.A..
Bilt processes payments through Adyen. Disclosed money-movement rails: ACH.
Bilt's cards are issued through Cardless.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 8 layers in Bilt's stack: Payments / PSP (Adyen); Money movement (ACH); Banking / BaaS (Column); Card issuing (Cardless); Lending (Credit card receivables financing); Sponsor bank (Column N.A.); Treasury (Modern Treasury); Transaction enrichment (Banyan).
Bilt was founded by Ankur Jain and is founded in 2019, headquartered in New York City, New York, USA.
Bilt has raised $800M+ in total (latest round: Later Stage VC, July 2025; valuation: $10.75B post-money (2025)).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Bilt and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.