Bringing Travel Rewards to the Ground

Meet Miles, a new app that’s bringing airline reward miles to the ground by rewarding people for things like riding a bike, walking and taking public transportation.

Cofounded by Jigar Shah, Paresh Jain and Parin Shah, the San Jose-based startup has raised $3m to date from Porsche Digital, Scrum Ventures and others. The app, which is currently available on the app store, tracks movement on multiple types of transportation and rewards users on a sliding scale depending on how eco-friendly their trip is. For example, biking is worth more than driving or taking the bus. Upon signing up, users get 2k miles which is enough for a $5 Starbucks, Target, or Whole Foods gift card, among others.

The company plans to allow brands to offer relevant offerings based on its data.

Bottom Line: there’s room for insurance partners.