Paul Kelbie is co-founder of Incentifi, a workplace wellbeing platform that rewards employees for healthy habits with members-only travel savings and points towards future trips.
In September 2026 the company opened its UK beta programme with a first group of employers including Enzo Tech Group, Primis Talent and M.S Webb, as investor Marcus Watson joined its backers. That followed a £150,000 pre-seed round announced in January, backed by Bioniq co-founder James Hardy, who also joined as a strategic adviser.
Based in London, he tells Business Matters how a recruitment career and a lockdown spent training as a travel agent led to a simple question: if travel can drive productivity, can it drive health?
What do you currently do at incentifi?
I am the co-founder of incentifi. We are a self-funding behavioural rewards economy that turns wellness into travel and real financial value. The idea is that we offer employers a low-cost subscription that combines members-only travel savings with a gamified health and wellbeing rewards system. Essentially, employees can save on travel immediately while earning commission towards future trips by building healthier habits.
My day to day alongside my co-founder, James Barrington Madders, involves pretty much everything and wearing as many hats as possible. No two days are ever quite the same, but we do have regular calls with the team to stay aligned and keep things moving.
A lot of the day is spent chatting with partners and brands, exploring new opportunities and making sure everything is ticking along as it should, so it is pretty full on most of the time. However, as we are in our infancy, my main role is to win clients and build brand awareness.
We recently launched our beta programme, which was a huge milestone for us. Currently, we are ensuring the more than 150 employees we have so far are using the app to its full potential, and we are growing our client base.
What was the inspiration behind your business?
Prior to incentifi, I ran a specialist recruitment-to-recruitment (R2R) business, building long-term relationships with clients and managing teams across London and Manchester.
During lockdown I trained as an independent travel agent, initially to save money on my own frequent breaks, and I quickly started booking for clients, including saving one client several thousand pounds on a Mykonos villa. That direct experience of seeing how much travel meant to people and how practical the savings could be, combined with my recruitment background, where incentive culture drove results, formed the foundation of incentifi.
Meeting my business partner, James, who runs the travel and hospitality management company London 2 Vegas, while delivering incentive travel for clients cemented the pivot from a labour-intensive concierge model to a scalable subscription platform linking travel and wellbeing.
incentifi started as something completely different: James and I were booking sales incentive trips for companies. We saw a gap. Businesses can use travel to motivate their teams, and in turn people worked harder, focused more and showed up. Travel and sales incentive trips were used by lots of companies to drive productivity, so we thought to ourselves: “If it can drive productivity, can it drive health?”
Who do you admire?
This is very hard to answer, as there are so many people I have met along the way who have inspired me. However, I really admire the people who come from nothing and build everything from the ground up.
They thought of a simple idea, did not give up and executed it. It takes a lot of strength to do that, and it is inspiring to see people grow their businesses. Essentially, I admire an underdog who did not give up.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
I am glad and always grateful to have co-founded incentifi. It is a vision we really believe in, and it is great to see how it went from just an idea on a piece of paper to what it is today.
Of course, running a business has its ups and downs, but I would have kept doing recruitment part time for longer to keep my personal finances healthier. I always know that things happen for a reason, so in hindsight everything happened exactly as it was meant to and helped the business become what it is today.
What defines your way of doing business?
I love talking to people and networking. Every moment when I am not building incentifi, I am building relationships. I also get to know my team in person.
You do not realise the power of small talk and how much people truly appreciate it. I am always inspired by everyone I meet.
I also believe that accountability is everything. If something goes wrong, it is so important to take accountability for it.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
If you have an idea, get validation early that it is seen as a good idea by others, not just by you championing your own work. You must believe in your idea too. Then, once you have that, be relentless and do not give up.
