CommutePays

What CommutePays does

CommutePays was a San Francisco-based for-profit private company founded in 2011 that operated a mobile application delivering location-based promotions and rewards from brands in the user's vicinity. The intended product was a consumer-facing mobile app that surfaced nearby brand offers to users based on their geographic location, functioning as a two-sided platform connecting commuters with proximate retail and brand advertisers.

The company raised approximately $1.1M in aggregate across two early-stage funding rounds completed in February 2011 ($600,000) and September 2012 ($500,000). Its disclosed leadership consisted of a Chief Marketing Officer (Dan Dahlen) and a Chief Development Officer (Theron McCollough). No product details, pricing model, revenue mechanics, customer segments, brand-partner logos, or monetisation specifics are documented in the available source material. The company is listed as having 11–50 employees.

No revenue, ARR, GMV, or commercial traction data is available. Critically, the company's primary web domain, CommutePays.com, is currently listed for sale on HugeDomains at $1,395 buy-now or $58.13/month over 24 months. No funding activity, product launches, leadership changes, or operational signals are recorded after 2012. The aggregate evidence — absence of post-2012 capital raises, inactive domain, no disclosed customers or revenue — is consistent with a venture that did not achieve commercial scale and has effectively ceased operations, though no formal dissolution or wind-down announcement is documented.

Name

CommutePays

Website

https://commutepays.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

CommutePays was a San Francisco-based mobile app, founded in 2011, that delivered location-based promotions and rewards from nearby brands to commuting consumers. It raised approximately $1.1M in early-stage funding across 2011–2012 and appears to have ceased active operations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Core offering

CommutePays is a mobile application that provides location-based promotions and rewards from brands in the users' vicinity. The app targets consumers on the move — particularly commuters — by surfacing geo-targeted offers from nearby businesses, enabling brands to reach customers at the point of purchase intent.

Product overview

No product or service information is available. The source is a domain name marketplace listing from HugeDomains.com for the domain CommutePays.com, which is offered for sale at $1,395.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CommutePays Mobile App A mobile application that delivers location-based promotions and rewards from brands to users based on their geographic vicinity. Designed for consumer commuters and on-the-go shoppers who want to discover nearby deals during daily travel.

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves4 records

Direct peers

• Shopkick: Location-based mobile rewards platform that gives users points and offers for walking into retail stores — same core mechanic of brand-funded, location-triggered rewards as CommutePays.
• Foursquare: Location check-in platform with location-based rewards and recommendations layered on top — overlaps with CommutePays on the location-triggered, brand-monetized mobile experience.
• Ibotta: Mobile cashback and rewards app partnering with brands; operates a similar mobile-first, brand-funded rewards model that competes for the same user attention and brand budgets.
• Citymapper: Mobile app aimed at daily commuters for trip planning — serves the identical commute-centric user base, even though its monetization model differs from a rewards angle.
• GasBuddy: Mobile app that provides location-based rewards and savings specifically for commuters at gas stations — directly comparable to CommutePays' premise of rewarding users during their commute based on proximity to brands.

Broad incumbents

• Waze: Commuter-focused mobile app serving the same daily-driving user base, with adjacent advertising and location-based features; broader incumbent rather than a rewards-only specialist.
• Groupon: Large-scale deals and local-offers marketplace that monetizes the same proximity-between-user-and-brand dynamic, but as a broad incumbent rather than a commute-focused niche.
• RetailMeNot: Digital coupon and rewards platform that competes for brand-funded promotional budgets directed at mobile consumers — overlapping monetization channel, broader portfolio.

Market position

Strengths2 records

Weaknesses3 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights3 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/commutepays
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/commutepays

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CommutePays