Ramp Pursues US Government Contract After Dogecoin Tweet

Ramp Pursues U.S. Government Contract for Expense Management

Ramp, a startup specializing in expense management, is currently under consideration for a pilot program involving charge cards with the U.S. General Services Administration. This information was confirmed by the company to TechCrunch on Thursday.

SmartPay Program and Potential Value

The government’s existing expense card program, known as SmartPay, represents a substantial $700 billion undertaking. Estimates suggest the prospective contract for this charge card pilot program, for which Ramp is vying, could be valued at as much as $25 million, as reported by Pro Publica.

Lobbying Efforts and Government Outreach

According to Pro Publica, Ramp initiated efforts to engage with the administration as early as January, preceding the inauguration of President Trump. These efforts aimed to garner attention for the company’s solutions.

In January, Eric Glyman, co-founder and CEO of Ramp, alongside Kyle Harrison, a venture capital investor at Contrary, authored a blog post titled “The Efficiency Formula.” Within this post, they outlined potential avenues for the government to curtail wasteful expenditure.

Connections to Key Figures

The blog post appeared to align with the governmental efficiency agenda later formalized by Elon Musk as the Department of Government Efficiency. This alignment is notable given Ramp’s existing connections to figures associated with both Musk and Trump. The company’s investor base includes Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures, Thrive Capital (founded by Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner), 8VC’s Joe Lonsdale – a supporter of Trump – and Jeb Bush, former Florida governor and brother of George W. Bush.

Ramp's Position in the Procurement Process

Lindsay McKinley, head of communications at Ramp, stated on Thursday that the company “is competing in a standard procurement process for a SmartPay pilot program based on the strength of our solution.”

She further emphasized: “Ramp’s technology has prevented billions of dollars in wasted spend across the economy, and if chosen, we’ll bring those same results to the American taxpayer.”

Spend Management Capabilities

Despite this assertive statement, McKinley clarified that the claim refers to Ramp’s established positioning as a cost-saving solution for corporate clients. The platform provides features comparable to other corporate expense management systems, such as the ability to establish rules for identifying expenses that deviate from established policies. The federal government already maintains numerous such policies for its employees.

Recent Developments and Government Data

McKinley indicated that the startup observed a public post on X (formerly Twitter) from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on February 18. This post revealed that “the US government currently has ~4.6M active credit cards/accounts, which processed ~90M unique transactions for ~$40B of spend in FY24.”

Shortly thereafter, a former Ramp customer facilitated an introduction to the GSA.

“Since then we have demonstrated the product and are now part of a standard RFI process,” McKinley explained. “We have no indication of whether we’ll be selected.”

Valuation and Funding

In March, Ramp experienced a doubling of its valuation to $13 billion following a $150 million secondary share sale. Since its founding in 2019, the startup has secured over $1 billion in equity financing and $700 million in committed debt funding.