Bitcoin-Rewards App Lolli Expands to 900 Retail Locations

Online shopping app Lolli is on a growth tear, expanding off the web and into 900 retail locations.

Company CEO Alex Adelman announced the partnership with Albertson’s subsidiary Safeway in an interview with Yahoo! Finance on Thursday. The expansion enables users to order groceries, beauty products, or pharmacy items online at Safeway.com for pick-up.

“We saw a demand from users to earn bitcoin for every day expenses like food and pharmacy,” said Adelman, in an interview with CoinDesk.

Additionally, users still earn a 3-5 percent return in bitcoin through their online purchases, which Adelman sees as a “rail to get bitcoin to the masses.” According to company accounting, nearly 40 percent are Lolli users are new to cryptocurrencies.

Launched a little under a year ago, Lolli has partnered with 750 merchants online, including Walmart, Macys, and Priceline. Adelman's previous company Cosmic was acquired by ecommerce firm Ebates, “so we know the merchants and understand the business model well.”

He estimates the average user has so far earned around $26 (263,661 satoshis) in bitcoin. He adds, after a purchase, the rewards estimate is calculated within “a few minutes to a few days.” However, it typically takes 30-90 days for the rebate to come through, as Lolli must wait until after the return period closes.

Adelman declined to share the firm's revenue projections, but said Lolli gets a percentage of each sale, which they then share with their tens of thousands of users.

As previously reported, Lolli launched in September 2018 backed with $2.35 million from prominent venture capital firms including Bain Capital Ventures and Digital Currency Group.

Image via Lolli