Heymax.ai announces US$2.6M seed funding round, led by January Capital
The Singapore-founded open loop loyalty platform aims to give users a free vacation every year by maximising merchant and credit card rewards
Singapore-founded loyalty platform Heymax.ai today announced it has raised US$ 2.6 million (SG$ 3.5 million) in seed funding, led by January Capital, with participation from Tenity, Ascend Angels, XA Network and other strategic investors.
Founded in 2023 by four ex-Meta engineers, Heymax.ai is a personal finance and shopping platform that allows consumers to earn Max Miles from over 500 businesses, and conveniently redeem them for any flights or directly transfer to miles and points at 25 airline and hotel partners.
“Consumers looking to optimise their rewards are struggling to find the right platform, leading to missed opportunities for valuable rewards and wasted effort on frustrating programs that don’t fit spending habits,” said Joe Lu, CEO and Co-founder of Heymax.ai. “Heymax.ai’s rewards ecosystem helps address these challenges, allowing consumers to unlock more loyalty rewards through earning Max Miles from their everyday purchases. We’re committed to helping our customers earn one free vacation every year,” he added.
Heymax.ai is backed by January Capital, reflecting a shared vision and commitment to digital commerce enablement in APAC. Lu says that January Capital’s deep understanding of the ecommerce and rewards space further solidified the partnership, making them the ideal investor for Heymax.ai’s future growth.
“Many rewards programs we know and love are locked within the closed ecosystem of a single company. This hyper-fragmentation only serves to drive up the cost of customer acquisition for merchants and increases the mental load on consumers who are seeking to optimise their spending power,” said Roy Ong, Investor, January Capital. “The team at Heymax.ai has a clear desire to break the mould and solve these challenges for both merchants and customers. Combined with the founding team’s experience in large technology companies, we knew from the beginning that they would be able to execute this vision with great finesse,” he added.
One platform for all your rewards
Amid an inflationary environment and high living costs, consumers are more cautious with their spending and are seeking ways to maximise their purchasing power.
Optimising merchant and credit card rewards can be a challenge, but Heymax.ai addresses this problem by building seamless interoperability across different business’ loyalty programs. Users can simply link their existing credit cards to the Heymax.ai platform and receive instant recommendations for the credit card that offers the most rewards for any given purchase.
50 Million Max Miles given out to date
The platform grants customers access to more than 500 major merchants across key categories including Amazon.sg, Apple, Grab, NTUC Fairprice, Shopee and more, allowing them to earn rewards through one single currency: Max Miles. Max Miles can be redeemed for any commercial flight on any airline, or transferred to over 25 airline and hotel partner reward programs worldwide at a 1:1 ratio, with no fees or expiry dates. The company’s user base has grown to over 50,000 consumers, who have earned over 50 million Max Miles and redeemed over 10,000 flights since Max Miles launched in September 2023.
The company also recently partnered with Visa to launch Card Maximiser. This collaboration helps consumers seamlessly track their spending across all Visa-branded cards, providing comprehensive and real-time insights into their card transactions and rewards accrual.
Best open loop Miles programme for brands
Beyond individual consumers utilising the Heymax.ai platform, companies like SingSaver and Airwallex are already integrating Max Miles into their campaigns, to create a cost-effective engagement strategy for businesses while offering customers the opportunity to earn additional rewards.
Heymax.ai expands leadership and regional presence for new phase of growth
Heymax.ai recently appointed Aik-Phong Ng, former Managing Director of Shopback and Fave, as their new Chief Commercial Officer to spearhead Heymax.ai’s partnership expansion efforts and accelerate widespread adoption of Max Miles.
Following strong momentum in Singapore, Heymax.ai announced its expansion into Australia in November 2023. The company continues to grow its presence for entry into new markets across the APAC region in the coming months.
Lu adds: "I'm extremely excited about the future when customers all over the world can easily maximise their rewards and get 1 million free trips from Heymax.ai every year to build treasured memories. To achieve that, we are firing on all cylinders to bring more partners onboard to reward customers with Max Miles."
To support the company’s growth efforts, the latest round of angel investors include Shiyan Koh,
JJ Chai, Kum Hong Siew, Jie Lun Ong, Evan Heng, JJ (Projjal) Ghatak, Jake Tan Jun Kiat, Junyang Ng, Chua Ee Chien, Nino Ulsamer, Jeff Wu, Ned Lowe, Vanessa Ho, Sky Tsoi, Zach Tan, Ronak Banka, Sandeep Krishnamani, Ayush Goyal, John Xiao, Jimmy Gambier, Royston Chan, Jian Wei Chuah, Junxiong Ho and StashAway's Angel Investing programme.
About heymax.ai
Founded by four former engineers from Meta, Heymax.ai is a Singapore-based fintech startup that aggregates consumers' fragmented rewards into a free vacation every year. Heymax.ai is dedicated to creating a truly user-centric open loop loyalty platform. Offering the simplest way for users to achieve their dream vacation, Heymax.ai maximises rewards through Max Miles offering, credit card optimization, and tailored recommendations. Users earn "Max Miles'' rewards from a selection of over 500 brands and vouchers on Heymax.ai’s shopping portal, which can be redeemed on any flights from any airlines at the best-in-class rate, or transfer at a 1:1 ratio to 25+ airline and hotel rewards programs; no fees, no expiration, no BS!
Media coverage
https://www.techinasia.com/loyalty-platform-heymaxai-raises-26m-seed-led-january-capital
https://e27.co/personal-finance-and-shopping-platform-heymax-ai-scores-us2-6m-funding-20240702/
https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/loyalty-platform-startup-heymax-ai-140000202.html
https://fintechnews.sg/97922/funding/heymax-ai-secures-us2-6-million-seed-funding/
https://technode.global/2024/07/02/singapores-heymax-ai-raises-2-6m-in-seed-funding-round-led-by-january-capital/
https://www.theedgesingapore.com/news/startups-entrepreneurs-digital-economy/loyalty-platform-startup-heymaxai-raises-us26-mil-seed