A Bend entrepreneur has expanded an app that rewards you when you sleep, eat well, exercise and think positively.

Now, the creators of KrowdFit say it will help improve your wallet health.

KrowdFit is a wellness cash-back rewards program that lives on a smartphone and enters its members into reward drawings that can win them as much as $5,000.

This year, KrowdFit also added two changes to the platform, originally developed in 2009 and perfected in 2012: It now offers a credit card with free KrowdFit membership and 4% cash back, or points, for spending on items like a salad or a pair of running shoes. It’s also available for download on phones by individuals, not just businesses.

“It further expands the wellness opportunities,” said Jim Miller, 56, KrowdFit CEO. “We don’t tell our members how to eat or exercise. We want them to choose what’s best for them. The majority of people need to move more, eat better and get more sleep. Just by doing these things you can be rewarded in KrowdFit. It’s designed to come alongside you and move through life.”

KrowdFit holds sweepstakes every week for members who log in healthy lifestyle habits by using third-party apps like Fitbit, Garmin, MyFitnessPal, Apple Health, Pelotin and Calm on their smartphones. Health data is entered weekly, monthly and quarterly into cash drawings. About 90% of the business comes from member companies offering the app free to its employees.

Consumers are used to rewards programs. For a long time, credit cards just offered travel rewards, Miller said. But the wellness credit card encourages spending on, well, wellness. KrowdFit corporate members pay an undisclosed monthly per-employee fee to get access to the app and online dieting, fitness-tracking and health education tools. People who sign up get it free, but will see advertising unless they pay for premium access, Miller said.

Earning rewards

KrowdFit began in Seattle. Miller and the company moved to Central Oregon a decade ago, giving up the rain to pursue his own fitness passion, cycling.

PacificSource, a health insurance company with 1,700 employees in four states, offers the app membership to its employees, said Sabrina Black, company well-being program manager.

Since 2017 when the company joined the app, more than 950 employees have signed up. More than a dozen have won one of the drawings and received cash incentives for healthy activities, Black said.

In the time she’s worked at PacificSource, Black has won $250 just for sleeping.

The company pays the monthly membership fees for each employee who enrolls, she said. “We want our employees to make sure they’re doing these basic things to take care of themselves,” Black said. “We want our employees to show up and be their best. We don’t have to run a program like this, and our employees can participate on their own very easily.”

KrowdFit’s local customer base also includes Deschutes Brewery, DOWL Engineering and Newport Market, Miller said.

Lauren Redman, Newport Market CEO and president, said market employees were early adopters of the program. In those early days, participating employees earned a lot of rewards and it was fun to get healthier, Redman said. Today, not so much, but that may be the result of two years of working through a pandemic, she said.

“I believe that’s largely because the number of participants on their app has grown so it’s tougher to win,” Redman said. “That coupled with the last few years that our employees have been focused on working hard through a global pandemic as frontline workers.”

Early on in KrowdFit’s history, Miller recognized the role an employer could play in encouraging wellness through sweepstakes or rewards rather than a rigid program. The funding for the rewards or sweepstakes comes from the membership fees, Miller said. He declined to say how many members are on the app.

“We want the consumer part of the app to be a no-brainer,” Miller said. “You walk, eat and sleep every day, but if you’re connected to KrowdFit, you’ll be rewarded throughout the year.”

One of the key components of the app is that KrowdFit will not sell any data collected, he said. The app is sensitive to this and is compliant with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act because it is integrated into health insurance companies, he said. “We agree not to sell your data,” Miller said.