When Paul Kelbie and James Barrington Madders met in 2022, they discovered a mutual pain which would lead to them founding a business together.
Having collectively spent over two decades building businesses from the ground up across recruitment, travel and high-end hospitality, it was not their first rodeo. Yet incentifi comes from a very personal place for them both.
“I lost my dad suddenly when I was young, and in recent years my mum has been living with dementia. It really does change your perspective on life,” Paul tells BusinessCloud. “You start to think much more about your own health and how important it is to make the most of your time.”
After turning 40, he built an online community around a series called ‘Lads & Dads’ which saw him share a video a day highlighting how men his age could look after themselves – and ultimately have more time with their families.
“That is our goal is with incentifi – to create a platform that rewards employees by simply getting their steps in each day, looking after their health and, in return, being rewarded with discounts on their travel and next holiday,” Paul explains.
“My co-founder James and I unfortunately share a mutual pain of both losing our dads at a very young age. It is what motivates us everyday with building incentifi.”
Rewinding back to 2013, he founded recruitment-to-recruitment agency Madison Warner, with offices in London and Manchester. He then pivoted during the COVID pandemic to become a luxury travel consultant. Madison Warner was dissolved in 2023.
James, meanwhile, spent 15 years in Las Vegas building a VIP hospitality and corporate events company. He still runs London 2 Vegas today, but has returned to the UK to build incentifi.
“When we met in 2022, we realised we were both watching teams become dramatically more productive, engaged and energised when the reward wasn’t another bonus or voucher, but something experiential such as travel,” says Paul.
“We come from very different industries, but both have taught us the same thing – it is all about putting people first.
“From running our own businesses, we saw first-hand that prioritising the wellbeing of your team is essential to success, as people work harder, smarter and more creatively when they feel heard, rested and healthy.”
James says the UK is the best place to start and grow their startup – contrary to the common narrative that entrepreneurs are desperate to leave the UK. The startup has raised more than £150,000 pre-seed funding under the SEIS scheme and is targeting £500k.
“London is the right place for us to build and grow incentifi: the city has a vibrant startup ecosystem with attractive financial incentives such as the SEIS and EIS schemes which our investors have benefited from,” says Paul.
“The UK also makes sense for us as a market because it has always been at the forefront of employee wellbeing compared to the US. We get a lot more annual leave, parental leave, health insurance – there is just a much bigger emphasis on wellbeing in the UK, so it makes sense to start here and go from there.”
incentifi users earn i-Points through daily activity tracked via existing health data from the likes of Apple Health and Google Fit. These points then get converted into i-Coins, which unlock real cash back when booking travel through the incentifi platform.
Coins can be used to reduce the cost of future travel or redeemed for digital gift cards.
“Delivered through employers, we are building a platform that is accessible to every level of the workforce, making wellbeing genuinely motivating and inclusive – and not just a benefit for the few,” explains Paul.
“Most wellbeing platforms track behaviour and offer token rewards; a discount here, a voucher there. incentifi does something structurally different: it turns consistent healthy habits into real financial value, not symbolic gestures.
“Rather than a one-off yoga class, employees are working towards something tangible and aspirational – a more affordable holiday.
“The second differentiator is the travel layer itself: incentifi gives employees access to closed user group pricing with wholesale hotel rates unavailable anywhere publicly.
“Before a single point is earned, the platform already delivers exceptional value. Add cashback on top, and the proposition becomes impossible to ignore.”
So what are their growth plans over the next 12 months?
“We are looking to launch our pilot soon, with the aim of fully launching soon after,” says Paul. “We want to ultimately expand into the insurance, healthcare and consumer space, positioning incentifi at the intersection of health, rewards and commerce.
“Our growth strategy is all about scaling through employers first. We recently announced our new partnership with Healf, which we are really excited about, as it will allow incentifi users to take part in Healf-branded challenges such as run clubs, movement challenges and lifestyle activities.
“We want to continue to partner with brands such as Healf to grow incentifi into the best platform available for employee wellbeing.”