James Barrington-Madders is co-founder of incentifi, a London-based workplace wellbeing app that rewards employees’ healthy habits with members-only hotel rates and points towards travel.
After announcing a £150,000 pre-seed round in January 2026 and a partnership with wellness marketplace Healf in February, the company opened its UK beta in September with employers including Enzo Tech Group, Primis Talent and M.S Webb, and he says it has now onboarded its first paying client.
He still runs London 2 Vegas, the VIP hospitality and corporate events business he built over 15 years in Las Vegas. He tells Business Matters how loss, a shared drive and a love of travel shaped a business built to tackle burnout.
What do you currently do at incentifi?
I am the co-founder of incentifi, a wellbeing app that helps pay for your holidays. Employees earn points for healthy habits, starting with their steps, and can put them towards hotel stays at members-only rates.
Alongside my co-founder, Paul Kelbie, we are building incentifi to combine wellbeing, travel and rewards in one economy. While I wear numerous hats, our priority right now is generating sales, continuing to level up our beta programme and launching the app widely.
It has been a busy and exciting year for incentifi, with some major milestones along the way. We announced £150,000 in pre-seed fundraising, Healf partnered with us, we launched our beta programme and, most recently, we officially onboarded our first paying client.
What was the inspiration behind your business?
incentifi began with something very personal to both of us. We had both lost someone in our close family, and that experience shaped how we viewed life and what truly mattered to us. We prioritised health, our time and the people we love.
From our first conversation, Paul and I shared a passion for business, the same vision and the same drive, and we knew that we wanted to build something great together.
At the time, Paul was working in recruitment and I was running London 2 Vegas, the travel and hospitality management company, which I still do. A simple collaboration turned into something bigger and incentifi was born.
The name incentifi comes from our early days of booking sales incentive trips. It was originally an online incentive travel service covering cities around the world, and we turned it into a subscription platform that gives businesses access to wholesale travel experiences to reward and motivate their teams.
Running London 2 Vegas had shown me just how much people value travel, and we saw an opportunity for incentifi to become something more.
Burnout and stress are real challenges in today’s workplace, and we noticed a clear gap. People need simple, motivating ways to track their progress, linked to rewards that genuinely support their wellbeing.
Our mission has always been to change the way people care for their health, helping them build healthier habits and lifestyles that improve their quality of life, and making employees truly excited about their rewards.
Who do you admire?
There are so many people that I admire, but if I had to pick, I would have to say Sylvester Stallone. I find his story so incredible and admire the person he has become over the course of his life.
He never gave up, staying true to his passion and belief no matter how many knocks and hardships came his way. The resilience is so inspiring. He turned his struggles into motivation and continued to work through personal setbacks.
I think these traits show that determination and confidence in yourself go a long way and keep you going.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
I try not to ponder too much on the past. Everyone has their own things and processes they would have done differently, but I would not change the journey, because it shaped incentifi into exactly what it is now. Every step taught us something that we needed to learn.
The early days and continuous long nights actually gave us a real understanding of what truly motivates people and how much a reward means to them. I believe where we are now is exactly where we are meant to be.
What defines your way of doing business?
I have learnt a lot over the past 20 years about conducting business, and the traits I will always live by are integrity, trustworthiness and always being a kind person. It goes a long way.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Do not ever quit when things get tough. Ignore the temptation, as that is usually when you are closest to a breakthrough. Learn from every stumble and just keep pushing on. It will pay off.
Amy Ingham
Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College's journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel's nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.
