In the last six years, the corporate charge card market (see definition below) has seen the launch of 3 major digital players (Ramp in 2019, Brex in 2017, and Divvy in 2016) that are already multi-unicorns. In addition, Expensify (founded in 2008), went public in Nov 2021 and is now worth $700M (though it was valued at nearly $5B shortly after its IPO).
Below is a list of the 16 challenger business credit cards currently active in the United States. Two have been acquired by large banks in 2021 (Capital One bought Lola and US Bancorp acquired Bento for Business) and will stay on this list as long as they operate as independent brands.
NEW: Looking for digital banks, lenders, payment providers, insurance or digital accounting for small businesses? Check out our latest lists: SMB online lenders (33) | SMB challenger banks (12) | SMB insurers (15) | SMB charge cards/expense management (16) | Billpay & invoicing (16)| Payment processors (7) | Subscription processors (7) | SMB digital accounting/bookkeeping (21) | Equity crowdfunding (7)
The FAB Score Ranking (Fintech Attention Barometer) is a proxy for the size of a private fintech company.
Leading USA Digital Small Business Charge Cards
ranked by FAB score (Fintech Attention Barometer**)
| Rank | Was | Company | FAB Score** | Review Date |
Founded | HQ | Funding ($M)*** | Visits (May ’23) | Funding Last 12 Months |
| — | |||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Ramp | 868 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2019 | NYC | $1,360 | 1,000,000 | $1,315.0 |
| 2 | 2 | Expensify | 500 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2008 | SF | $401 | 1,600,000 | $363.0 |
| 3 | 4 | Divvy (Bill.com) | 224 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2016 | Utah | $418 | 520,000 | $165.0 |
| 4 | 3 | Spendesk | 203 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2016 | Paris | $312 | 430,000 | 200 |
| 5 | 5 | Jeeves | 195 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2019 | NYC | $368 | 46,000 | $363.0 |
| 6 | 6 | Airbase | 131 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2017 | SF | $252 | 69,000 | $221.0 |
| 7 | 7 | Bonsai | 97 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2016 | SF | $0.1 | 480,000 | 0 |
| 8 | 8 | Parker | 85 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2019 | NYC | $157 | 14,000 | 157 |
| 9 | 9 | Tribal Credit | 75 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2016 | SF | $143 | 28,000 | $134.0 |
| 10 | 10 | Center | 49 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2018 | Seattle | $70 | 65,000 | $65.3 |
| 11 | 12 | Karat | 31 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2019 | SF | $46 | 31,000 | $41.0 |
| 12t | 11 | Teampay | 24 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2016 | NYC | $50 | 20,000 | $32.4 |
| 12t | 14 | PEX Card | 24 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2007 | NYC | $4.9 | 150,000 | $0.0 |
| 14 | 13 | Bento for Business (US Bank) | 18 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2014 | SF | $25 | 68,000 | $6.0 |
| 15 | 15 | Dash.fi (was FunnelDash) | 5 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2016 | Austin | $3.7 | 11,000 | $3.2 |
| 16t | 16 | Profit (was Swipedom) | 4 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2019 | NYC | $0.5 | 1,700 | $0.0 |
| 16t | 17 | Comcard | 4 | 7 Jun ’23 | 2019 | LA | $0.2 | 0 | $0.0 |
Source: Compiled by FintechLabs, 7 June 2023, from Crunchbase, SEMrush, SimilarWeb
“Was” = rank on 13 April 2023
Notes:
*Sponsor (SP): FintechLabs may receive referral revenues or sponsorships from issuers. This does not impact their FAB score but does impact placement on the site.
**FAB score = Fintech Attention Barometer, a proprietary measure of company size calculated by Fintech Labs. Inputs primarily include funding, website traffic and employee count.
***Funding includes both equity and debt amounts (millions of U.S. dollars)
Definition: Charge cards require the balance to be paid in full each month; credit cards allow the balance to be rolled over, often at a relatively high interest rate).
Profiles: Challenger SMB Charge Card Issuers
1. Ramp
FAB Score = 868 (unchanged since April 2023)
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2019
– Valuation: $8.1B (based on Feb 2022 round) <<< Highest
– Raised $1.4B total <<< Highest
– Raised $1.3B since Jan 2021 (Crunchbase) <<< Highest
– Website visits (May 2023): 1.0M (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 658 (Pitchbook, up 194 since April) <<< Highest
– Articles: 60 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 81,500 followers (733 employees)
– G2: 4.8 (1,700 reviews)
2. Expensify
FAB Score = 500 (up 40)
– HQ: SF
– Founded: 2008
– Raised $401M ($363 since Jan 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Annual Revenue: $170M (2022)
– Market cap: $600M (NASDAQ:EXFY)
– Website visits (Mar 2023): 1.6M (SimilarWeb) <<<< Highest
– Employees: 138 (Pitchbook, down 56 since Feb)
– Articles: 394 (Crunchbase) <<<< Highest
– Linkedin: 13,800 followers (241 employees)
– TrustRadius: 7.9 (340 reviews)
3. Divvy (acquired by Bill.com)
FAB Score = 224 (up 14)
– HQ: Utah
– Founded: 2016
– Valuation: $2.5B (June 2021 exit)
– Raised $418M ($165M since Jan 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (May 2023): 520,000 (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 443 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 81 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 33,900 followers (450 employees)
– Trustpilot: 2.5 (400 reviews)
4. Spendesk
FAB score = 203 (down 16)
– HQ: Paris
– Founded: 2016
– Raised: $312M (Crunchbase)
– Valuation: $1.1B based on Jan 2022 round (FintechLabs)
– Website traffic: 430,000 (May ’23, SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 585 (Pitchbook)
– Article citations: 40 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 35,700 followers (629 employees)
5. Jeeves
FAB Score = 195 (up 3)
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2018
– Raised $368M ($363M since Jan 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Valuation: $2.1B based on March 2022 round (FintechLabs)
– Website visits (May 2023): 46,000 (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 237 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 23 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 21,000 followers (239 employees)
– Trustpilot: 2.9 (67 reviews)
6. Airbase
FAB Score = 131 (down 5)
– HQ: SF
– Founded: 2017
– Raised $252M ($221M since Jan 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (May 2023): 69,000 (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 273 (Pitchbook, unchanged)
– Articles: 205 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 40,000 followers (322 employees)
– G2: 4.8 (1,370 reviews) <<< Highest
7. Bonsai
FAB Score = 97 (down 36)
– HQ: San Francisco
– Founded: 2016
– Raised: $120,000+ (Crunchbase)
– Website traffic: 480,000 (May 2023, SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 32 (Linkedin, unchanged)
– Articles: 8 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin followers: 2,500 (32 employees)
– Trustpilot score: 4.7 (385 reviews) <<< Highest Trustpilot score
8. Parker
FAB Score = 85 (down 7)
Founded: 2019
HQ: NYC
Raised: $157M in 2023 (Crunchbase)
Article citations: 1 (Crunchbase)
Employees: 28 (Pitchbook)
Website visits: 14,000 (May 2023, SimilarWeb)
Linkedin: 2,000 followers (36 employees)
9. Tribal Credit
FAB Score = 75 (up 4)
– HQ: SF
– Founded: 2016
– Raised $143M ($134M since Jan 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (May 2023): 28,000 (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 400 (Pitchbook, unchanged)
– Articles: 15 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 23,600 followers (273 employees, down 26 since April)
– Trustpilot: No reviews
10. Center
FAB Score = 49 (up 10)
– HQ: Bellevue, WA
– Founded: 2016
– Raised $69.3 including $64.3M since Jan 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (Mar 2023): 65,000 (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 170 (Linkedin, up 37 since April)
– Articles: 2 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 2,900 followers (170 employees)
– G2: 4.6 (258 reviews)
11. Karat
FAB Score = 31 (down 6)
– HQ: LA
– Founded: 2019
– Raised: $45.6 ($41 since Jan 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (May 2023): 31,000 (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 55 (Pitchbook, up 4 since April)
– Articles: 4 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 5,000 followers (55 employees)
– Trustpilot: No reviews
12 (tie). TeamPay
FAB Score = 24 (down 14)
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2016
– Raised $50.4 (includes $32.4 since Jan 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Website visitors (May 2023): 20,000 (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 87 (Pitchbook), down 7 since April
– Articles: 11 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 3,700 followers (63 employees)
– G2 rating: 4.4 (162 reviews)
12 (tie). PEX Card
FAB Score = 24 (up 8)
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2007
– Raised $4.9M ($0 in past 12 months) (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (May 2023): 150,000 (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 86 (Pitchbook, unchanged)
– Articles: 2 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 9,200 followers (89 employees)
– Trustpilot: No reviews
14. Bento for Business(acquired by US Bank, Aug 2021)
FAB Score = 18 (down 11)
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2007
– Raised $24.5M ($6M since Jan 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (May 2023): 68,000 (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 43 (Pitchbook, unchanged)
– Articles: 42 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 1,800 followers (43 employees)
– Trustpilot: 2.0 (102 reviews)
15. Dash.fi (was FunnelDash)
FAB Score = 5 (down 1)
– HQ: Austin
– Founded: 2016
– Raised $3.7 ($3.2M since Jan 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (Mar 2023): 11,000 (SEMrush)
– Employees: 13 (LinkedIn, down 3 since April)
– Articles: 0 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 350 followers (13 employees)
– G2: 4.5 (63 reviews)
16 (tie). Profit (was Swipedom) (acquired by Paymentus)
FAB Score = 4 (down 1)
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2019
– Raised $1.5M (including $1M since Jan 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (May 2023): 1,700 (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 9 (Pitchbook)
– Articles: 4 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: NA
– Trustpilot: No reviews
16 (tie). Comcard
FAB Score = 4 (unchanged)
– HQ: LA
– Founded: 2019
– Raised $200k (prior to 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (May 2023): INA (SEMrush)
– Employees: 4 (Linkedin, unchanged)
– Articles: 1 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 94 followers (4 employees)
– Reviews: NA
Not ranked (focusing on larger businesses, enterprises or cards as a service)
Brex
– HQ: SF
– Founded: 2017
– Valuation: $12B (based on Oct 2021 round)
– Raised $1.46B ($725M since Jan 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (Mar 2023): 850,000 (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 1,150 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 353 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 116,000 followers (1,349 employees)
– Trustpilot: 3.3 (560 reviews)
Lola (acquired by Capital One, 2021, separate brand discontinued 2023)
– HQ: Boston
– Founded: 2018
– Raised $81.7M (prior to 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (May 2023): 6,100 (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 57 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 4 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 6,700 followers (42 employees, up 24 since April)
– Trustpilot: 4.1 (215 reviews)
Mercantile
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2021
– Raised $22M in 2022 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (Mar 2023): 4,700 (SimilarWeb)
– Articles: 4 (Crunchbase)
– Employees: 32 (Pitchbook), up 21 sine April
– Linkedin: 290 followers (35 employees)
– No Trustpilot profile
Rho
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2018
– Raised $205M ($200M since Jan 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Website visits (May 2023): 45,000 (SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 198 (Pitchbook)
– Articles: 21 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 5,900 followers (235 employees)
– Trustpilot: No reviews
