What if one of the simplest daily activities could become a platform for better health, charitable giving, and lower-carbon transportation?
In this episode we spotlight WeWard, the rewards app that turns daily steps into points users can redeem for cash, gifts, discounts, or donations to nonprofit organizations.
Founded in France in 2019 by Yves Benchimol and Tanguy de La Villegeorges, WeWard combines behavioral science, gamification, brand partnerships, and commerce to encourage people to walk more. The company reports reaching 30 million walkers across 29 countries, transferring more than $50 million to users, and donating $1.5 million to charitable organizations.
The episode examines how WeWard’s reward system works, the commercial engine funding those rewards, and why the company is more than a traditional step-tracking app. It also explores WeWard’s reported health and environmental impact, its Walking Mode feature, and the questions the company must navigate around privacy, accessibility, and long-term behavior change.
In this episode, you’ll learn
- How WeWard converts steps into its digital reward points, called Wards
- Why immediate rewards can make healthy behavior easier to sustain
- How users can redeem Wards for cash, gifts, discounts, and charitable donations
- How brand partnerships, affiliate commerce, advertising, and sponsored challenges support the business model
- Why WeWard’s model creates value for users, brands, charities, and communities
- How an independent mobility study measured changes in walking and transportation behavior
- Why WeWard describes walking as both a public-health tool and a form of lower-carbon mobility
- How Walking Mode uses access to distracting apps as an incentive to reach a daily step goal
- The privacy, accessibility, and retention challenges the company must manage as it grows
Key figures discussed
- 30 million walkers across 29 countries
- More than $50 million transferred to users
- $1.5 million donated to charities
- More than 70 nonprofit organizations supported
- A reported 24% average increase in users’ walking activity
- More than 2,000 participating brand partners
- Approximately 4.3 million monthly visits to WeWard’s in-app ecommerce section
- An estimated 750,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions averted
The bigger takeaway
WeWard’s most interesting innovation is not simply paying people to walk. The company is building an economic system around a positive daily behavior. User activity creates value for commercial partners, partner revenue helps fund rewards and charitable projects, and those rewards motivate people to continue moving.
For founders working across health, climate, consumer technology, and social impact, the lesson is clear: information alone rarely changes behavior. Better products make the desired action visible, social, rewarding, and easy to repeat.
----------------------------------------
Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media companydedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.
Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.
By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.
