Bilt, the New York-based neighborhood commerce and rewards platform, has acquired LAVA, a technology company that runs real-time loyalty, membership and customer engagement programs for sports and entertainment organizations. The transaction is valued at $300 million and marks Bilt’s first major move beyond its housing-focused rewards business.
LAVA works with 56 professional franchises across the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS, among them the Detroit Lions, Denver Nuggets, Carolina Hurricanes and LAFC. Its platform lets teams and venues identify customers, deliver personalised benefits, run loyalty schemes and trigger live experiences on top of the systems they already use. More than 300 technology adapters connect it to point-of-sale, identity, ticketing, payments and other back-office tools, so clients do not need to replace existing infrastructure.
Bilt, launched in 2021, lets members earn rewards on rent and other housing payments and redeem points with airlines, hotels and local merchants. The company says its network now spans more than 7 million members in residential communities and over 50,000 merchant partners. Adding LAVA brings sports fans and venues into that network, alongside LAVA’s stored-value, identity and engagement capabilities.
Founder and CEO Ankur Jain said Bilt was built on the idea that a person’s home should link them to the wider neighbourhood, and that sports teams are among the strongest communities in the country. “LAVA has built incredible technology connecting sports organizations with their fans,” he said, adding that combining the two businesses opens a new frontier for membership and loyalty.
The deal also includes LAVA’s Realtime AI technology. Bilt plans to pair it with its own AI agents to coordinate personalised offers and benefits across businesses, using data and integrations both companies already operate. LAVA’s capabilities are expected to be folded into the Bilt platform over time.
LAVA co-founder Wen Miao said the company had spent years helping teams engage fans in real time and that Bilt offers a route to extend that technology to neighbourhood businesses. Vivek Ranadivé, LAVA’s founder and chairman and owner of the Sacramento Kings, said the combination could turn fandom into “a neighborhood economy” that benefits fans, teams and local merchants.
Bilt said it will share more details about its plans for neighbourhood commerce and connected membership in the near future.
