Investors Launch Another Corporate Card FinTech Into Unicorn Status

Pleo is the latest corporate card FinTech unicorn thanks to an impressive funding round and a growing excitement in the investor community over the expanding use cases for corporate card technology. This week’s Commercial Card Innovation tracker explores some of those use cases, including a hybrid fleet-expense card and driving adoption of virtual cards in accounts payable.

Pleo Reflects Investors’ Corporate Card Interest

Pleo is the latest B2B FinTech to join the unicorn club thanks to a $150 million funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures and Thrive Capital, the company said this week. The investment, which values Pleo at about $1.7 billion, reflects investors’ intensifying interested in solutions that can help businesses make payments and manage spend, with corporate card technology often at the center of those innovations. Pleo offers businesses corporate card solutions in addition to broader financial management products, including expense management, and, thanks to the new equity, will also be expanding its functionality with plans for bill payment solutions up ahead.

Bank of America Eyes Cards’ Payables Impact

Bank of America was recently named as the top Visa and Mastercard commercial card issuer by The Nilson Report’s 2020 Rankings, according to The Financial, and a significant driver behind the financial institution’s success has been its support for corporate card solutions within the accounts payable department. According to Bank of America’s Head of Global Card and Comprehensive Payables in Global Transaction Services Jennifer Petty, diversity in card products is key to supporting a broad range of business users and use cases. Virtual card adoption in accounts payable saw a particularly strong year of adoption, the bank said, adding that it saw a 90 percent increase in virtual payables clients during 2020 looking to expand use of corporate cards for supplier payments. As a result, 53 percent more suppliers signed on to accept virtual card payments, reports said.

TotalEnergies Taps Mastercard For Expanded Fleet Card

TotalEnergies, a France-based oil and gas company, has announced a partnership with Mastercard to create the Mobility Corporate Card. Designed to expand upon the traditional capabilities of a fleet card, the product aims to support broader expense management for professionals, including fuel purchases, car washes and EV charging as well as for spend at hotels and restaurants. TotalEnergies plans to first introduce the card to its customers across France, with reports in Fleet Europe noting the company will expand its offering throughout Europe.

KYN Capital Group Wields Debit Cards For Employees, Subcontractors

KYN Capital Group is expanding its relationship with the National Homeowners Association, which will be using KYN’s KoinFold Debit Card product to facilitate payroll and direct deposit payouts to its employees and subcontractors, the companies recently revealed. In a statement, National Homeowners Association CEO Solomon Williams noted that the debit cards “help streamline our business operations” as well as “allow us to provide benefits to the thousands of new businesses and subcontractors we will be working with” through the launch of its BidWilly.com platform. Small businesses can use the platform for free when they also use a KoinFold Debit Card to support direct deposits and payment needs.

Karat Lands Funding For Niche Card Product

Also showcasing investors’ appetite for corporate card solutions is Karat Financial, a California B2B FinTech whose business cards are designed for digital content creators and online influencers. The company recently announced $26 million in Series A funding led by Union Square Ventures, while GGV Capital and SignalFire also participated. According to an announcement, the concept for Karat’s card offering stemmed from the struggle that digital content creators face when seeking credit from a traditional lender using traditional underwriting tactics. Karat uses metrics like social media followers and digital platform income streams to provide professionals a card offering, and it plans to build out its offering with new features as it heads into another round of funding.

Cardlay To Connect Into SAP Concur

Virtual commercial card FinTech Cardlay has revealed plans to integrate into SAP Concur, allowing business users to access virtual card and expense management solutions from directly within the Concur platform. SAP Concur noted in its announcement that Cardlay supports its bank-agnostic strategy and can help drive employee spend away from professionals’ personal cards and towards more transparent, controllable company card solutions.