Editors’ Note

After graduating from Boston University, Ric Roth directed the operations of RMR Advertising Inc., a media planning and buying organization founded by his father, Robert Roth. He later formed IGT Media Holdings and The IGT Charge Card (now Primecard, primecard.com). His most recent venture is Apogee Rewards, Inc.

Company Brief

Apogee Rewards, Inc. (apogeeindigo.com) is a Miami-based company that was developed by the founders of Primecard, a membership-based discount program. The mission of Apogee is to provide travelers with a revolutionary way to explore the world. Through the Apogee Indigo app, travelers can plan their adventures with a virtual sherpa that offers curated dining, entertainment, attraction, shopping, and experiences, while taking advantage of great savings at their upcoming destinations. In development since 2022 and launched in 2024, Apogee Indigo also helps promote local businesses that are looking to tap into the travel industry. Apogee Indigo pre-purchases products from merchant partners and provides industry-leading marketing practices to drive customers through their doors.

What was the vision for creating Apogee Indigo and how do you define its mission?

Having conceptualized, developed, and managed Primecard, which has generated over 12 million transactions and over $550 million in revenue from over one million members, we believed we had a very good understanding of the space and truly felt that we could leverage our experience and core competency to build an app-based, data-driven, travel tech platform that would offer consumers great savings benefits and curated content when traveling to Apogee Indigo destination markets.

Our mission is relatively simple; we want to offer all of our stakeholders, including merchant partners, distribution partners, and travelers (we call them explorers), an opportunity to equally benefit from engagement with Apogee Indigo.

Merchant Partners: Drive incremental sales from travelers heading to their markets through Apogee Indigo’s robust marketing to these travelers both pre-arrival and throughout the traveler’s stay.

Distribution Partners: Provide a no-cost benefit to the travel and hospitality industry through an app-based platform that will provide their customers with a no-cost benefit and their businesses with a rich and ongoing revenue share in categories not endemic to their existing revenue streams.

Travelers: Provide them with a no-cost benefit that will offer them savings and cash back of up to 40 percent at 100 to 200 restaurants, attractions, experiences, and entertainment locations in each Apogee Indigo destination market.

Will you provide an overview of how Apogee Indigo works and discuss its capabilities?

Apogee Indigo develops a Merchant Partner Network in each destination market. We connect with travelers through our Distribution Partner Network and market our merchant partners to these travelers who are heading to that market. The traveler is provided with savings and cash back opportunities that greatly incentivize them to engage with our merchant partners.

In the absence of Apogee Indigo, it is almost impossible for a merchant partner to connect with travelers pre-arrival at the destination or for the distribution partners to generate revenues on their customers’ dining, attraction, experience, and entertainment spend.

As previously mentioned, we have a wealth of experience through our Primecard business. This experience includes many successes as well as some less-than-stellar experiments. All of this knowledge provided us with a great base from which we have spent almost three years and millions of dollars to develop a robust tech platform with all of the latest geolocation, data management, and AI functionality that will allow us to best serve our stakeholders. Apogee Indigo is also committed to giving back, and we do this through our partnership with Feeding America. Apogee Indigo provides one meal to America’s food challenged for every Apogee Indigo transaction at our Merchant Partners.

Where do you see the greatest opportunities for growth for Apogee Indigo?

In the short term, Apogee Indigo will roll out to 20 destination markets – a destination market is defined as a particular city, county, or region where tourists travel. These markets will generate roughly $100 million of sales and $20 million of EBITDA. If we then look at 100 markets, we’re looking at $1 billion in revenue and $200 million in EBITDA. There are thousands of destination markets worldwide, so Apogee Indigo’s scalability is practically limitless.

In addition, there are some additional verticals developed within our business plan and platform that will allow for growth beyond the travel and tourism sector.

What are your priorities for Apogee Indigo as you look to the future?

The major priority of our team is to constantly test new offerings and utilize the data from these tests to offer the most robust and rewarding experience for our stakeholders.

What have been the keys to Primecard’s ability to stay relevant and grow over the years?

Flexibility, creativity, tight controls over expenses, and the willingness to take calculated risks if the potential reward is there.