Ramp Introduces Merchant Blocking for Corporate Cards

The Challenges of Expense Management and Corporate Spending

Employees frequently cite expense filing as an undesirable task. Simultaneously, effectively managing corporate expenditure represents a significant hurdle for businesses.

Corporate credit cards offer a solution to alleviate these difficulties, which explains the intensifying competition among companies operating in this sector.

Ramp's Growth and New Feature

Ramp, a rapidly expanding fintech company, recently secured a $150 million debt facility from Goldman Sachs. This followed a $30 million Series B funding round completed in late December 2020.

The New York-based company has now unveiled a new functionality designed to provide its corporate clients with enhanced control and adaptability regarding card usage.

Specifically, Ramp now enables customers to approve or restrict merchants for transactions made with cards issued to their employees.

Responding to Customer Needs

In an exclusive discussion with TechCrunch, Eric Glyman, Ramp’s co-founder and CEO, explained that this development was directly driven by customer feedback.

“This feature was among the most frequently requested, particularly by organizations employing over 100 individuals,” Glyman stated. “The sentiment was, ‘I can block unwanted phone calls, so why can’t I apply the same principle to my credit card?’”

Enhanced Control and Security

With this new feature, Ramp asserts that companies now possess “complete control” over employee spending, extending down to the individual vendor level.

This allows businesses to define precisely with whom employees can spend, which vendors can be charged to specific cards, and the permissible spending limits.

This level of control significantly reduces the risks associated with stolen or compromised cards, according to Glyman.

Furthermore, it helps prevent employees from exaggerating expenses or submitting fraudulent reimbursement requests.

“This returns security and control to finance teams in a manner previously unattainable,” he emphasized.

Cost Savings and Strategic Spending

The new feature also supports companies in achieving cost savings through the use of corporate credit cards.

“For instance, spending can be limited to businesses or companies with which they have negotiated discounts or preferential pricing,” Glyman explained. “This provides an additional enforcement mechanism for finance departments.”

Implementing this functionality proved challenging, as accurately identifying and categorizing unique merchant identifiers was “technically complex,” Glyman noted.

Ramp's Customer Base and Growth Metrics

Ramp currently serves “thousands” of businesses, with tens of thousands of individuals utilizing its cards.

The company is currently processing transactions totaling nine figures monthly, exceeding $1 billion in overall spend.

Since securing the credit line earlier in the year, Ramp has experienced substantial growth, more than doubling its transaction volume over the last three months.

While Glyman refrained from disclosing specific revenue figures, he revealed that Ramp’s revenue increased by over 6,000% in 2020 compared to the previous year.

Growth has continued at a rate exceeding 1,000% over the past 12 months.

Ramp’s clientele includes rapidly expanding startups and small businesses, such as Ro, Sleep Eight, ClickUp, Marqeta, Candid, Better, Truebill, and Nuggs.

A SaaS Approach to Fintech

Although Ramp primarily generates revenue through interchange fees, Glyman positions the two-year-old startup as a SaaS (Software as a Service) operator.

“Our primary long-term objective is to develop exceptional software,” he concluded.