Journey guru The Points Guy needs to revamp the posh journey factors system with Journey

Brian Kelly made an entire profession off the cottage business, parlaying a aspect hustle of maximizing bank card and journey rewards right into a weblog, The Points Guy, that turned a verifiable franchise. Now he’s arguing that the factors system has jumped the shark. Alongside Lerer Hippeau and Slow Ventures, he’s backing the New York-based startup Journey in a $7.7 million seed spherical to set it again heading in the right direction. 

Maybe that is an excessive amount of of a first-world drawback to care about, however I’m positive loads of this text’s readers had been distraught when Chase introduced an abstruse modification of their Sapphire Reserve bank card, or when Marriott acquired Starwood. Who doesn’t love faux web cash that may often offer you an airline improve or a free resort night time? 

John Sutton, the cofounder and CEO of Journey, thinks the system wants a revamp. A longtime tech entrepreneur, Sutton met Kelly whereas serving because the chief digital officer at Red Ventures, a media-focused funding agency that owns manufacturers like Bankrate, Lonely Planet, and finally, The Points Guy. 

When Sutton left his position in 2021, he took a few years off to play skilled volleyball earlier than determining his subsequent enterprise. After exploring the thought of investing in short-term leases like Airbnb properties, he had the thought of constructing out a loyalty program for vacationers. After consulting with Kelly, he realized there was a broader drawback—not solely of short-term leases and lots of impartial accommodations missing the infrastructure to create rewards techniques, however that factors basically had been more and more damaged. “They’ve been losing the magic of loyalty,” Kelly informed me. “There’s a big opportunity to create a program that people are excited about.”

Journey’s web site seems like a cross between a journey platform like Booking.com (a web-based journey company, in business parlance) and an Instagram feed, with lush snippets of desert hideouts and jungle treehouses. On the backend, Journey’s small workforce curates properties, now totaling greater than 1,500 from around the globe, that need to take part of their loyalty program—a mixture of impartial accommodations and rental properties. Sutton says they’re not searching for sure worth factors (with properties starting from a number of hundred to many thousand {dollars} per night time) or stars, however whether or not they’ve “created something special that has a story to tell” (you may try their portal, which simply launched, to guage for your self).

The upshot for guests, Sutton and Kelly argue, is that the system is easy: You earn 5 factors per greenback spent when you ebook straight by means of their platform, with every level price about two cents, equating to a ten% rebate, which will be immediately redeemed throughout stays. “Our program is engineered so that you’re not being taken advantage of,” Kelly mentioned.

Journey is the kind of consumer-forward, design-first tech product that you just don’t see a lot anymore—a easy idea executed with aptitude. But this being 2025, there may be AI concerned, in fact. The firm has constructed instruments that monitor customer preferences and conduct, like whether or not they’d choose to be greeted with pink wine or mineral water, to assist property managers customise the expertise. And Journey can be constructing out a platform for influencers like Kelly that matches them with properties. Eventually, the purpose is to construct out AI brokers that may assist vacationers. Sutton says it can make platforms like Expedia, the place you discover a resort by looking for the highest 10 accommodations in Paris, look antiquated.

“Travelers will be on a trust journey with us,” he informed me.  

Leo Schwartz
X: @leomschwartz
Email: [email protected]

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VENTURE DEALS

– Tako, a São Paulo-based developer of AI brokers that run payroll and workforce operations, raised $18 million in funding from Ribbit Capital, a16z, and founders.

– Raise Robotics, a San Francisco-based developer of a robotic designed to finish building duties, raised $7.8 million in seed funding. MaC Ventures led the spherical and was joined by Undivided Ventures and current traders Cybernetix Ventures, Zacua Ventures, and Union Labs.

– Qbeast, a Bellevue, Wash.-based information infrastructure firm, raised $7.6 million in seed funding. Peak XV’s Surge led the spherical and was joined by HWK Tech Investment and Elaia Partners.

– Pearl Edison, a Detroit-based basic contractor for residential electrification and power effectivity tasks, raised $3.3 million in seed funding. New System Ventures and Commonweal Ventures led the spherical and had been joined by Lightbank and Newlab.

– Neurogram, a São Paulo-based neurological diagnostics platform, raised $3 million in seed funding. Headline led the spherical and was joined by Romero Rodrigues.

PRIVATE EQUITY

– Machinify, a portfolio firm of New Mountain Capital, agreed to take Performant Healthcare, a Plantation, Fla.-based funds firm for the well being care business, personal for roughly $670 million.

– New Mountain Capital agreed to amass a minority stake in Wipfli, a Milwaukee-based advisory and accounting agency. Financial phrases weren’t disclosed. 

EXITS

– MPLX acquired Northwind Delaware Holdings, a Houston-based bitter fuel gathering, treating, and processing providers enterprise, from Five Point Infrastructure for $2.38 billion. 

– Cinven agreed to amass a majority stake in Smart Communications, a London, U.Ok.-based cloud-based enterprise buyer communications, from Accel-KKR. Financial phrases weren’t disclosed.

– NDT Global acquired Entegra, an Indianapolis-based premium integrity and inspection firm specializing in Ultra-High-Resolution Magnetic Flux Leakage in-line pipeline inspection providers, from Amberjack Capital. Financial phrases weren’t disclosed.

FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS

– Dextra Partners, a New York City-based personal fairness agency, raised $825 million for its seventh fund targeted on middle-market corporations.

– CRV, a San Francisco and Palo Alto, Calif.-based enterprise capital agency, raised $750 million for its twentieth fund targeted on seed and Series A rounds.

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