CommutePays offers mileage rewards program for everyone

Eric Peterson | Monday, February 10, 2014

"I always hated commuting," says CommutePays Founder and CEO Shahir Ahmed.

He figures there are plenty of people with a similar mindset among the country's 140 million commuters -- 10 million of whom commute an hour or more daily.

It follows that CommutePays uses location-based data to market businesses to commuters who pass them on a near-daily basis, and commuters earn rewards just like air travelers. "It's the everyone, everyday miles app," explains Ahmed.

As commuters travel from "point A to point B," whether they're in a car or a bus or on a bike or a train, CommutePays sends them push messages from partner businesses.

Commuters can earn bonus miles by engaging with these partner brands, and ultimately earn "location-based rewards" for their commute, says Ahmed. "You earn miles by doing something you do every day."

CommutePays is partnering with numerous companies to integrate its technology into other apps. "Our app will be a button within those apps," says Ahmed. The company completed a pilot in New York last year and is currently working to raise an undisclosed Series A funding round.

Ahmed says CommutePays is part of a larger trend. "The next generation of apps are utility apps that reward you," he says.

Ahmed started CommutePays in Denver in 2011 and left to work at San Francisco's RocketSpace in fall 2012. He subsequently raised a seed round and returned to Denver in August 2013. The company is now based in LoDo.

Despite his difficulty fundraising in Denver, Ahmed says that he came back for other reasons. "The quality of life here in Denver is so much better -- that's why I came back here."

Contact Confluence Denver Innovation & Jobs News Editor Eric Peterson with tips and leads for future stories at eric@confluence-denver.com.

CommutePays offers mileage rewards program for everyone

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