Loyalty platform startup Heymax.ai raises US$2.6 mil in seed funding led by January Capital

Heymax.ai's Max Miles loyalty currency can be exchanged for flights, or transferred to miles and points at 25 different partners.

Singapore-founded loyalty platform Heymax.ai has raised US$2.6 million ($3.5 million) in seed funding, led by January Capital, with participation from Tenity, Ascend Angels, XA Network and other angel investors.

Heymax.ai, a personal finance and shopping platform, was founded in 2023 by four ex-Meta engineers. It allows customers to earn its loyalty currency called Max Miles, which can be redeemed for any flights or directly transferred to miles and points at 25 airline and hotel partners.

Max Miles never expire, and customers are never charged a fee for redemption, according to Joe Lu, CEO and cofounder of Heymax.ai.

Lu says that 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 platform has access to more than 500 merchants, including Amazon.sg, Apple, Grab, Shopee and others. However, the “earn rate” of each partner platform differs. Lu says that customers can earn two to three miles per dollar spent on Shopee, but the earn rate for a platform like trip.com is higher, at six to seven miles per dollar spent.

Lu says that the startup’s mission is to make personal finance and wellness equitable. “We want people’s default personal finance status to be great, and rewards is the first angle in which we can do this because it's very measurable,” he adds.

Through leveraging data sets from its Max Miles rewards programme, Lu says that Heymax.ai will eventually seek to help customers make better travel decisions, savings and other personal finance needs.

“But first, we need to build trust [of the customer]. Collecting data is worth nothing without trust being built,” Lu ends.

The startup also most recently appointed Aik-Phong Ng, former managing director of Shopback and Fave as its new CCO. Heymax.ai most recently announced its expansion into Australia, and is working to expand across Asia Pacific in the coming months.

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