US company Ramp is the latest fintech to hit unicorn status
The New York-based fintech, Ramp, has reached unicorn status after its latest funding round. The new funding drive of $320m, brings the technology startup’s total valuation to $1.6bn.
Ramp was founded in 2019 by the same entrepreneurs who launched Paribus, a consumer finance fintech that was acquired by Capital One in 2016. The company, which has confirmed $115m in investments from Stripe, Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs, Thrive Capital and more, is focussed on innovating and disrupting the corporate spending field.
The new funds will be used to boost Ramp’s growth strategy and innovate new products. Those in development include new features such as cutting-edge card controls, accounting automation and automated savings. With the recent hire of former Stripe and Goldman Sachs executive Colin Kennedy as chief business officer, the company will also grow its partnerships, sales, and marketing efforts.
Ramp’s solutions revolve around creating corporate cards that are designed to save businesses money. Ramp’s solutions include managing spending from the ground up to improve control over spending and save time on transactions. Ramp provides higher card limits coupled with savings opportunities, accounting integration, automated expense management and receipt matching services
Ramp market challenges
According to reports, Ramp is emerging as a direct competitor of corporate finance giants like American Express and Brex. However, its innovative solutions are disrupting the corporate spending market because the platform’s USP includes card usage analytics that reveal excess and unnecessary transactions. Data suggests that up to a third of Ramp’s users were formerly customers of American Express, while 90% of clients have started using the services as their integrated spend management platform, effectively ousting other companies including Concur and Expensify.
The combination of low interest rates on unlimited cashback and high spending limits but with spend control, has proven popular with clients globally with Ramp’s transactions rising by 400% since November 2020.
Over the past six months, transaction volume on Ramp has grown by approximately 400%. A third of Ramp customers switched over from American Express, and more than 90% of customers adopted Ramp as a comprehensive spend management platform, replacing Expensify, Concur or manual alternatives.
Speaking about Ramp’s recent rise to success, Keith Rabois, partner at Founders Fund, says “Like Square, Paypal, and Strip e, Ramp is rapidly emerging as a generational fintech company. Though it launched publicly just one year ago, Ramp is already viewed as the obvious choice for efficient spend management at the fastest-scaling, highest-performing startups.”
He added, “We are pleased to welcome Stripe, an innovative company that we deeply admire, to the Ramp team.”
