Building services and the merchant network behind resident rewards

Bilt began with rewards tied to housing payments and has expanded into services connecting residents, property operators and nearby merchants. In July 2025 it raised $250 million in primary funding at a $10.75 billion valuation. That historical financing shows the scale of the platform’s expansion ambitions; it is not the price of Livly or evidence of how this acquisition was financed. [S05]

Livly is a Chicago-based property-technology business founded in 2017. Its software gives residents access to tasks such as rent payment, maintenance requests and package notifications, while property teams manage operations through a separate dashboard. Smart access adds a physical-building function to the software relationship. [S03][S06]

The transaction announcement specifically identifies Livly’s technology platform. It says the product originated inside FLATS, the operator now within Collective Residential, and adds access control, package management and smart-home capabilities to Bilt. It does not describe the acquisition of Collective Residential itself. [S01]

Collective Residential, formerly Proper, acquires property-management firms and supplies shared infrastructure while retaining local brands and teams. Its consolidation model makes common technology commercially relevant: a shared service can potentially serve several operating businesses without replacing each local customer relationship. That is our analysis of the distribution fit, not a disclosed count of communities converting to Bilt. [S04]

For Bilt, the opportunity is frequency: access, packages and service requests can bring residents back between rent payments. Founder and CEO Ankur Jain linked the acquisition to year-round engagement and neighbourhood merchant demand. That is management’s rationale, not evidence of increased spending. [S01]

The commercial mechanism is visible in Bilt Alliance’s existing offer: move-in gifts, renewal incentives, local benefits and revenue participation from neighbourhood spending. Its website, observed on October 19, 2026, reports 50,000+ merchant partners. That is the wider platform’s reported scale, not a merchant count acquired with Livly. [S02]

Two dated company statements make the distribution scale more concrete. Bilt reported more than 40,000 merchant partners nationwide in July 2025; its Alliance website displayed 50,000+ when reviewed on October 19, 2026. The figures describe the wider platform and use thresholds, so they cannot establish an exact increase. The current website’s older descriptive metadata still mentions 45,000+ merchants; the chart

Bilt acquired Livly ’s technology platform on September 15, 2026, adding building operations to its housing payments and rewards business. A parallel partnership with Collective Residential provides a property-operator relationship through which the combined service can reach residents. [S01] Building services and the merchant network behind resident rewards Bilt began with rewards tied to housing payments and has expanded into services connecting residents, property operators and nearby merchants. In July 2025 it raised $250 million in primary funding at a $10.75 billion valuation. That historical financing shows the scale of the platform’s expansion ambitions; it is not the price of Livly or evidence of how this acquisition was financed. [S05] Livly is a Chicago-based property-technology business founded in 2017. Its software gives residents access to tasks such as rent payment, maintenance requests and package notifications, while property teams manage operations through a separate dashboard. Smart access adds a physical-building function to the software relationship. [S03] [S06] The transaction announcement specifically identifies Livly’s technology platform. It says the product originated inside FLATS , the operator now within Collective Residential, and adds access control, package management and smart-home capabilities to Bilt. It does not describe the acquisition of Collective Residential itself. [S01] Collective Residential, formerly Proper, acquires property-management firms and supplies shared infrastructure while retaining local brands and teams. Its consolidation model makes common technology commercially relevant: a shared service can potentially serve several operating businesses without replacing each local customer relationship. That is our analysis of the distribution fit, not a disclosed count of communities converting to Bilt. [S04] For Bilt, the opportunity is frequency: access, packages and service requests can bring residents back between rent payments. Founder and CEO Ankur Jain linked the acquisition to year-round engagement and neighbourhood merchant demand. That is management’s rationale, not evidence of increased spending. [S01] The commercial mechanism is visible in Bilt Alliance’s existing offer: move-in gifts, renewal incentives, local benefits and revenue participation from neighbourhood spending. Its website, observed on October 19, 2026, reports 50,000+ merchant partners. That is the wider platform’s reported scale, not a merchant count acquired with Livly. [S02] Two dated company statements make the distribution scale more concrete. Bilt reported more than 40,000 merchant partners nationwide in July 2025; its Alliance website displayed 50,000+ when reviewed on October 19, 2026. The figures describe the wider platform and use thresholds, so they cannot establish an exact increase. The current website’s older descriptive metadata still mentions 45,000+ merchants; the chart

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