NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Extend, a mobile platform designed for business cardholders to instantly and securely share access to their credit card via digital credit cards – also known as virtual cards – with employees and freelancers, today announced that it has completed a $3 million seed financing round. Point72 Ventures led the round with investments from Plug and Play, Reciprocal Ventures, WorldQuant Ventures, and other individual investors. The firm announced that Silicon Valley Bank is their initial bank provider.
Extend’s mission is to create a universal digital card sharing platform, in partnership with credit card issuers and networks, that enables both cardholders and designated recipients to effortlessly send and receive temporary digital credit cards. With Extend, cardholders can easily and instantly give secure access to a company funded digital credit card to any employee or freelancer. Each digital credit card has a unique card number, a defined spend limit and expiration date, and all purchases can be easily tracked.
“We give businesses the freedom to safely share what’s theirs,” said Andrew Jamison, CEO of Extend, “and we do it in partnership with their trusted bank. With Extend, the common but unauthorized practice of handing over your credit card to an employee or freelancer is over. We eliminate the need for individuals to use their personal cards to pay for business expenses. Instead, we enable business leaders to empower their staff to make purchases on company issued digital cards.”
Having launched in September, Extend focused on fast growing companies that struggle to keep pace with the increasing controls needed to run a flourishing business. With additional bank partners coming online soon, they have expanded their focus to include the entertainment and construction verticals. Both industries rely heavily on freelancers and contractors who typically don’t have an efficient way to pay for the goods and services they need to get their jobs done.
“We believe there is a great opportunity for fintech companies to partner with banks and enable them to better serve their customers. We’re excited to work with Extend as they bring their innovative credit card sharing platform to banks to let them equip their customers with a flexible but controlled means of payment that is a natural extension of their traditional credit card program,” said Pete Casella, Head of Fintech Investments at Point72 Ventures, Steve Cohen’s venture capital fund.
Extend's platform creates value for all existing stakeholders. Networks and banks get to extend the reach of their relationships and credit cards, giving them access to new spend volumes, high margins, and better credit line utilization. Businesses and cardholders increase their card program utilization and thus get greater visibility on spend while earning rewards and points on these new transactions.
The deployment of Extend takes little to no effort for either banks, corporate customers, or end users. Any bank already integrated with MasterCard In Control for Commercial Payments (ICCP 2.0) can effortlessly deploy Extend. Beyond its initial launch with Silicon Valley Bank, Extend is working with MasterCard and Visa to enable the Extend platform for participating U.S. issuers through a series of pilot programs. Cardholders and digital card recipients simply need to download the Extend app from the Apple or Google app stores to access the platform.
“Traditional card issuance, which hasn’t kept pace in the digital world, has prevented people from making payments with company funds,” said Saeed Amidi, Founder and CEO of Plug and Play Tech Center. “When Andrew first presented his idea at Plug and Play’s Selection Day, we immediately recognized the multi-billion dollar opportunity that Extend had unlocked for banks and their cardholders.”
Amidi, who took part in Extend’s seed round, was an early investor in PayPal, Dropbox, and Lending Club.
The company was founded by leading experts in payments and developers of cutting edge technology: Andrew Jamison, CEO, Guillaume Bouvard, COO, and Danny Morrow, CTO. Andrew and Guillaume each spent 12 years at American Express, with Andrew leading B2B payments solutions globally, and Guillaume a member of the CEO’s strategic planning team and most recently leading corporate payment innovation and advisory services business. Danny is an accomplished developer who has built digital products for several well-known Fortune 50 companies.
Extend’s Board Members include Alfredo Gangotena, an industry veteran who has held leadership roles at MasterCard including Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Products & Solutions in Europe. Other notable investors include two Venture Partners at Oak HC/FT: Jonathan Weiner, cofounder of Money 20/20 and Michael Heller, cofounder of Argus Information and Advisory.
About Extend
Extend is a universal card sharing platform, created in partnership with banks, that enables both cardholders and designated recipients to securely and instantly send and receive temporary credit cards. Cardholders can send a unique digital credit card to employees, contractors, and freelancers with a defined spend limit and expiration date while tracking the purchases being made with the card, without revealing the card number. Its mobile first technology makes for a seamless user experience for both cardholders and recipients. Created by industry veterans with decades of experience at Fortune 500 companies including American Express and Capital One, the firm is headquartered in Manhattan. For more information visit, paywithextend.com.