Ledger leaders: Fintech company Ramp hits $22.5B valuation with AI-powered expense automation

Ramp has raised $22.5 billion in valuation across two funding rounds just two months apart, cementing its position as one of the fastest-growing fintech companies challenging American Express in the corporate credit card market. The six-year-old startup, which crossed $1 billion in annualized revenue in August and serves over 45,000 businesses, is leveraging AI-powered automation to transform how companies manage expenses and spending—positioning itself to capture market share from established financial giants with a 169-year head start.

The big picture: Ramp has evolved from a simple corporate credit card company into a comprehensive financial platform that promises to save businesses time through automated expense management, bill payments, and AI-driven policy enforcement.

• The company now generates more than half its contribution profit from non-card revenue streams, including subscription services for expense management, procurement, and travel booking.
• Ramp’s “policy agents” use AI to automatically approve employee expenses against company policies, reducing manual review from 100% of receipts to just 10% for some customers.
• The platform processes transaction data to identify spending patterns and cost-saving opportunities across organizations.

Why this matters: Ramp represents a fundamental shift in corporate finance from rewards-based systems to cost-reduction focused solutions, arriving at a time when companies are increasingly obsessed with efficiency and automation.

• The startup accounts for just 1.5% of the $2 trillion U.S. corporate credit card market, leaving enormous room for growth.
• Unlike traditional card companies that profit from rewards programs, Ramp offers flat 1.5% cash back while building revenue through software subscriptions and transaction fees.
• The company’s AI-first approach gives it a technological advantage over established players still running pilot programs.

Key milestones: Ramp’s journey from startup to unicorn happened with unprecedented speed for a New York-based tech company.

• Founded in 2019 by Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh after they left Capital One, a major credit card company, where they had sold their previous startup Paribus.
• Reached unicorn status ($1.6 billion valuation) within exactly two years, as promised by cofounder Atiyeh to early employee Calvin Lee.
• Achieved $100 million run rate within three years and crossed $1 billion annualized revenue in August 2024.

The funding frenzy: Ramp’s rapid valuation increase from $16 billion to $22.5 billion in two months has drawn both praise and skepticism from investors.

• The July Series E was led by Founders Fund, followed by an August Series E-2 led by Iconiq, with new investors including Sutter Hill Ventures, T. Rowe Price, and Google Ventures.
• Nearly every funding round has been led by insider investors who previously backed the company, with Founders Fund leading five rounds total.
• One former investor told Fortune that Ramp’s public market valuation would likely be “less than half” of its current private valuation.

What they’re saying: Industry leaders and investors express confidence in Ramp’s potential despite the aggressive valuation.

• “You don’t have to squint to see a $100 billion company,” says Kareem Zaki, partner at Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm.
• Keith Rabois of Founders Fund believes Ramp could go public within a year: “Venture is a power law business, and there’s a power law within the power law. If you find phenomenal founders, the best you can do is double and triple down.”
• Former American Express CEO Ken Chenault, now an investor and advisor: “What they’re doing with AI is a massive accelerant. The valuation that they’re at now, they’re going to have to be a really big company for it to work. But it can work, and it will work.”

Competitive challenges: Ramp faces significant hurdles in expanding beyond its small and midsize business base to capture enterprise customers and international markets.

• Competitor executives note that larger companies prefer best-in-breed solutions rather than all-in-one platforms, particularly for travel and expense management.
• The company’s current customer base includes venture and private equity firms that recommend Ramp to portfolio companies, but enterprise sales require different strategies.
• Existing enterprise customers include CBRE, a real estate giant, and Shopify, demonstrating some upmarket traction.

AI ambitions: Ramp is positioning artificial intelligence as its key differentiator, with plans to automate increasingly complex financial tasks.

• Current AI features include policy agents that automatically approve expenses and receipt processing that eliminates manual expense reports.
• Future products will automatically code work lunch receipts by reading employee calendars and inboxes, book travel based on schedules, and recommend quarterly department budgets.
• The company employs 1,200 people and is using new funding primarily to expand its engineering team for AI development.

Government opportunity: Ramp is pursuing federal contracts that could significantly expand its market reach, though political connections have drawn scrutiny.

• The company is involved in a proposal process with about 20 other companies for a General Services Administration pilot contract worth tens of billions annually.
• Several core investors have close ties to the Trump administration and support Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cost-cutting efforts.
• Glyman says he has “no political agenda” and that venture funds weren’t involved in connecting Ramp with government agencies.