Billionaire Ankur Jain And Comic Matt Friend Target The Comedy Market

Forbes

28-04-2025

Matt Friend performs at a Bilt Neighborhood Comedy night.
Apartment rents keep spiking—a record 22.6 million households are unable to afford payments, and even greater numbers are 'rent burdened,' according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
While that's no laughing matter, Bilt Rewards founder and CEO Ankur Jain says his company's new Neighborhood Comedy Series can ease the pain—through hilarity and by offering rewards for paying monthly rent.
Launched in late 2024, the series, exclusive to Bilt members, is part of the company's Neighborhood Benefits program. Bilt Rewards is a payments and loyalty company that processes rent payments, allowing members to earn rewards on paying rent while redeeming points with hotels, airlines, restaurants and fitness centers, among others. The company processes over $36 billion in annual rent and HOA payments for members.
Jain spoke from the Bilt's Bond Street headquarters, the sixth floor of a renovated 1893 mercantile building in NoHo—with a recently opened Bilt-branded cafe at street level. Jain says the comedy nights take the edge off paying rent, helping to 'foster neighborhood and community-based experiences.'
Founder and Chairman of Kairos Society Ankur Jain attends the Kairos Society Global Summit at The Rockefeller Family Estate on April 20, 2017 in Tarrytown, New York. (Photo byfor Kairos Society)
Dressed in a white hoodie, Jain was joined by comic Matt Friend, director of Bilt Rewards' Neighborhood Experience, Comedy. Jain and Friend believe they can unify the disjointed stand-up comedy circuit 'under one platform,' says Friend, whose uncanny impersonations have become a hit on social media.
'What better way to bring people together than giving them access to these intimate, private comedy experiences, right in their neighborhood?' says Jain, who Forbes named to its '30 Under 30' list in 2015.
'Comedy is such a hyper-competitive field,' Friend says. 'Everybody wants a platform. We're working toward creating that for comedians so they can get to know each other and be discovered by new audiences.'
Since stand-up is partly crafted around a local sensibility—what rocks audiences in Austin might fall flat in Chicago—Bilt has doubled down on the comedy program's local appeal, in tandem with its Neighborhood Benefits Program.
Comedian Matt Richards performs at a Bilt Neighborhood Comedy night.
'We want to be the biggest place that comics go to build their local following, which can then give them a national presence,' says Jain, 35, who holds a net worth of $1.2 billion, according to Forbes. Jain's fintech company, launched in 2021, is a brainchild of the Kairos Society (now Kairos HQ), which he founded in 2008 to help entrepreneurs launch new ventures in healthcare, housing and financial services.
Bilt members can purchase up to two tickets per show on the Bilt app. The offer drops around the 27th of each month, just before rent day benefits. Tickets, which range from $40 to $75 per person depending on the city, include two drinks per person, and in select cities, light bites. The series runs one night a month and two nights in select cities. A dozen cities host the comedy nights: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
On occasion, big-name comics drop in to do a set, including Saturday Night Live cast member Marcello Hernandez, Chris Distefano ('Chrissy Chaos' podcast, 'It's Just Unfortunate' Hulu special), and the fearless Liza Treyger, who headlines comedy clubs nationwide.
Bilt Neighborhood Comedy nights have rolled out in a dozen cities.
Most comics start at bars, coffee shops and even laundromats where they develop a voice and sometimes bomb. From there, becoming a club regular is golden, and gigs as an opener or a feature act can solidify a career. The next steps can lead to road gigs, regional touring and industry attention.
There's also the wild card of online comedy, where Friend cultivated his audience. Performers post videos on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, all of which can lead to regular club bookings—for a rare few.
'I've seen both sides of the comedy world,' Friend says. 'The Gen Z, social media types and TikTokers who work their way into the clubs. And the old school path, where there's a system of getting in. There's really not much beyond that, not a sense of community. We want to rethink the comedy-going experience and improve it.'
Friend says he balances sourcing talent, drawing on a mix of established and emerging names. Notables have attended the Bilt comedy nights—Anne Hathaway, to drop one A-lister.
At most stand-up venues, audiences rarely interact with comics post-show. 'But oftentimes comedians will hang around after and everyone mingles, which I think is very cool,' says Friend, who showcased his political impersonations at the 2024 White House Correspondents Dinner.
On a recent Bilt comedy night in Hollywood, five comics performed at 71 Studio Bar, adjacent to Grandmaster Recorders restaurant and rooftop space—the transformed Grandmaster Recorders studio that dates to 1971. The once legendary Grandmaster Recorders is helping to fuel a Hollywood resurgence, injecting youthful spirit into the area.
I was joined by a friend who scored tickets through an offer on his Bilt app, which connects to his Bilt Mastercard (Bilt Rewards doesn't require the card to be a member and benefit from the program). We had low expectations, knowing stand-up comedy can be hit or miss.
Comic Cole Garrett was first up, his manic style scorching the walls. Garrett is sober (he notes that in his act), but his amphetamine-fueled act (minus the actual amphetamines), was like a slap upside the head, the kind you're oddly grateful for. The crowd of 60 howled through most of the evening.
Also in the line-up: Danny Jolles, Laura Peek, Ali Macofsky and Steve Furey. The group delivered solid material that rarely fell flat, building on Garrett's wild bronco ride out of the starting gate. The seasoned comics have impressive backgrounds: regular paid slots at Los Angeles' Comedy Store and the Hollywood Improv, MTV sketches, commercial work and videos that have racked up millions of online views.
The Bilt comedy nights bank on quality comics as well as quality spaces—similar to the Grandmasters Recording Studio. The nights have also been booked at The Comedy Club in Los Angeles, Seattle's Space Needle, Lucali in Brooklyn, and New York City's The Stand and P.J. Clarke's.
Although the evenings hew to Bilt Rewards' targeted focus on intimate neighborhood experiences, other comics are heading in the opposite direction. Los Angeles comics Gabriel 'Fluffy' Iglesias and Jo Koy are teaming up for a SoFi Stadium show on March 21, 2026, hoping to draw 70,000 fans, according to the Los Angeles Times. The crowd would eclipse the current Guinness World Record for a comedy audience.
Still, Jain says he wants to grow his program. 'It's a way for comics to build a local cult following, and that's how all the best comics started,' he says. 'It gives them a platform for building bigger and bigger. I feel we can do that at scale for comics in every city around the country. No other brand has brought members together around this category.'
Part of Jain's plan includes a possible TV series. 'We could help find the funniest neighborhoods in America, find the best comics and let local people pick them—have some fun around it,' he says.
Jain and Friend met by chance at the U.S. Open in the summer of 2024. 'I said hello to Ankur and we ended up connecting,' Friend says. During a subsequent dinner at The Corner Store in SoHo, 'there was no pitch,' Friend adds. 'It was just, 'I'm in comedy, I'm 26 years old. I've built a brand on social media. I rent in New York City. All my friends are Bilt fanatics.' We thought there was an opportunity to do something.'
Jain's company is valued at $3.2 billion, according to a Forbes August 2024 estimation. Jain recognized a massive untapped market when he created a loyalty program for the renter economy. More than a third of households in the U.S. pay monthly rent, with the housing payments market valued at $2.1 trillion, according to Bilt.
'Ankur has a rare ability to take on complex societal issues and come up with simple, practical solutions that make you wonder how no one has done this before,' said Richard Branson, billionaire entrepreneur and founder of Virgin Group, in a 2020 Forbes profile of Jain.
'There are other rent reward programs that exist,' says Ken Sisson, a Coldwell Banker Realty agent in Studio City, California. 'They offer funds or a credit toward your down payment and/or closing costs whenever you eventually buy a home.'
Sisson adds that Bilt Rewards' hyper-local neighborhood focus is an optimal formula for engaging a younger demographic. He calls the program a 'win for landlords and property managers partnering with Bilt, and a win for tenants who use the service.'
Although anyone can pay their rent and earn rewards with Bilt, the company's Bilt Alliance network of 4.5 rental homes integrates payment platforms with property management systems. The company serves one in four apartment buildings through the arrangement, according to Bilt.
(L-R) Wyclef Jean, Ankur Jain, Mayor of New York City Eric Adams and Mitch Moinian appear onstage at the Bilt Rewards x Wells Fargo Launch Party on March 28, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
This year, Bilt Rewards plans to expand its program to mortgage payments, a market dominated by the Mesa Homeowners Card, issued by Celtic Bank, which offers rewards on mortgage and other homeowner expenses, including insurance, maintenance, improvements and utilities.