Ramp is entering digital banking territory with a new treasury product

Over the years, Ramp has made a name for itself in the field of corporate card and expense management. It is divided into travel, bill payment and more It has raised more than 1.2 billion dollars in venture financing.

Today, the six-year-old fintech startup is announcing a different expansion—one that takes it more into digital banking territory—with a new product called Ramp Treasury.

In short, landing In an exclusive interview with TechCrunch, CEO and co-founder Eric Glyman explains that it’s about giving customers a way to make money and not just save money.

“We looked at checking accounts and deposits that customers linked to Ramp and realized that the vast majority were earning 0.00% interest,” he said. Ramp Treasury, Glyman added, is designed to work alongside a customer’s existing bank accounts, not replace them.

With Ramp’s new Treasury product, businesses can keep cash in a business account and earn 2.5% or a money market fund for potentially higher returns. Given that the cash held in a business account is liquid, they can access their cash more quickly to pay bills.

Glyman emphasizes that, as with other fintechs operating in the space, Ramp is not a bank, but rather partners with banks on a proposition. The startup partners with First Internet Bank of Indiana on the cash deposit account and Apex on the investment side.

Ramp operates in a crowded space that includes a number of competitors including Mercury, Brex, Navan, Rho and Mesh Payments. Brex, perhaps the most famous of the group, once existed many years ago applied for a bank charter then before choosing not to go that way.

For its part, Ramp does not aspire to be a digital bank. But the move to offer a treasury bill is a big step for the company, which is expected to boost Ramp’s profits, Glyman said. It also helps it become more of a one-stop shop for its customers by allowing them to keep more of their cash in one place instead of moving it between different businesses and accounts.

For now, the company remains tight-lipped on revenue numbers. In March 2023, Glyman told TechCrunch that Ramp saw its revenue quadruple in 2022 — led by the fastest-growing segment of bill payments — but was not yet profitable. The company passed Annual income of 100 million dollars It said it will surpass $300 million in annual revenue in the summer of 2023, before its third birthday in March 2022.

Today, Glyman said Ramp alone has more than 30,000 customers, up from about 15,000 this time last year, and has done more than $50 billion in card and bill payments. About 18 months ago, that number was closer to $10 billion, according to Ramp.

The Company primarily generates revenue from interchange fees charged for each swipe with the Ramp card, as well as transaction fees for bill payments. It also earns SaaS revenue from customers who upgrade to the Plus offering through currency exchange from international money movements, affiliate fees when flights or hotels are booked through its travel product, among other things.

With the addition of the treasury product, Ramp will also earn a spread from its bank partners on the total balances of all funds held in the customer’s business account.

“We pass most of that back to the customer in the form of a rate of return that we promote, but we retain some economies to ensure profitability,” Glyman said.

Ramp is one of the few big fintechs that hasn’t had to lay off employees in recent years, though like most others, its valuation has taken a hit from previous highs. In April last year collected 150 million dollars at a post-money valuation of $7.65 billion in a round led by Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund. This funding brought it close to the previous round It is worth 8.1 billion dollars Retrieved March 2022.

The startup passed the 1,000-employee mark by the end of 2024, Glyman said — up from 730 at the time of the increase last April.

Looking ahead, Glyman said Ramp expects an IPO in the long term.

“We’re just trying to build a great business, whether it’s private or public,” he said.

Want more fintech news in your inbox? Sign up for TechCrunch Fintech here.

Want to get in touch with a tip? Send me an email maryann@techcrunch.com or text me on Signal at 408.204.3036. You can also send a note to the entire TechCrunch team tips@techcrunch.com. For more secure communication, Click here to contact usthis includes links to SecureDrop and encrypted messaging apps.