after its original founders failed to secure enough funding to keep the business running.
It first launched in B.C. in March 2016 with the province investing $2.5 million and the federal government contributing $5 million. The user base grew to about 1.1 million people across B.C., Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Northwest Territories, but funding ran dry and Carrot Rewards shuttered in June 2019.
Many of these people joined a beta list, said Wang, and Optimity is conducting research to see how to best build Carrot Rewards into a sustainable program.The company is in talks with a number of rewards-program operators to find partners, she said. Though Wang declined to name any, she called some “the usual suspects” while others will be different from before.
The program also required a complex web of points providers to purchase loyalty points from and such deals take a long time to sign, he said. Carrot Rewards also needed a number of significant government clients willing to pay for those points so app users could earn them for free by leading healthy lives.