Ramp (company)

Ramp (company). Ramp is an American financial technology company that provides a corporate card and integrated expense management platform designed for businesses. Founded in 2019, the company leverages software to automate financial operations, aiming to help companies control spending and streamline accounting processes. It has grown rapidly, achieving unicorn status within two years of its launch and competing with established players like American Express and Brex.

History

Ramp was founded in March 2019 by Eric Glyman, Karim Atiyeh, and Gene Lee, who had previously co-founded the personal finance tool Paribus. The company emerged from the Y Combinator startup accelerator program, securing initial seed funding to develop its platform. In 2020, Ramp launched its first product, a corporate card integrated with real-time expense tracking software, entering a competitive market alongside Brex and Divvy. The company's early growth was fueled by the shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased demand for digital financial control tools. Significant milestones include a Series B funding round led by DST Global in 2021 and a major expansion of its product suite into accounts payable and vendor management by 2022.

Products and services

Ramp's core offering is a Visa-branded corporate card program that provides physical and virtual cards to employees. The platform's software automatically captures and categorizes transactions, enforces company spending policies through customizable controls, and integrates directly with major accounting software like QuickBooks, NetSuite, and Xero. Beyond cards, Ramp has expanded into automated accounts payable, offering bill payment and invoice management tools. Additional services include real-time budget monitoring, receipt matching via optical character recognition, and API connections to other business systems such as Slack and Google Workspace.

Business model

Ramp primarily generates revenue through interchange fees, a percentage of each transaction processed on its corporate card network shared with Visa and issuing banks. Unlike some competitors, the company does not charge annual fees, account maintenance fees, or foreign transaction fees to its customers, positioning itself as a cost-saving tool. Its business model relies on software automation to reduce operational costs and drive high card usage volume from clients. The company also partners with financial institutions and technology platforms to expand its distribution and embed its services within broader enterprise software ecosystems.

Funding and valuation

Ramp has raised significant venture capital through multiple funding rounds. Early backing came from Y Combinator and investors like Founders Fund and Coatue Management. In April 2021, a Series B round co-led by DST Global and Stripe valued the company at approximately $1.6 billion, granting it unicorn status. Subsequent rounds included a Series C in 2022 led by Thrive Capital and a Series D in 2023 with participation from Sands Capital and Lux Capital, bringing its total funding over $1 billion. These rounds have valued Ramp at several billion dollars, though specific post-money valuations from later rounds have not been consistently publicly disclosed.

Corporate affairs

The company is headquartered in New York City and led by co-founder and CEO Eric Glyman. Ramp has engaged in strategic partnerships, including a notable collaboration with Citi to offer card programs to the bank's commercial clients. It has also acquired several companies to enhance its technology, such as Buyer, a negotiation platform, and Venue, a startup focused on procurement software. The company actively promotes its corporate culture and engineering initiatives, often highlighting its remote-friendly work policies and recruitment from major technology companies like Google and Meta.

Category:Financial technology companies of the United States Category:Companies based in New York City Category:American companies established in 2019