Ramp, a corporate management startup, said that it has raised $8.1 billion in a fresh fundraising round that includes $550 million in debt and $200 million in equity. The Information reported on the then-unconfirmed rise and revised value in early February. Given that Ramp had just achieved unicorn status with a $115 million round less than a year ago, the impending decacorn price is extremely astounding. Last August, it raised $300 million at a $3.9 billion value.
The current equity fundraising was led by Founders Fund for the fourth time, marking the firm’s fourth time leading around for Ramp. It’s not uncommon for a firm to engage in numerous rounds for a startup, but it’s far less normal for one firm to lead four equity financings in such a short period of time. Ramp, situated in New York, was created in 2019 and launched as a corporate card service in February 2020.
Keith Rabois of Creators Fund told TechCrunch that his company is in the business of sponsoring “great founders as early as possible.” “Ramp is an example of where we put money in early and then doubled down when we saw the quick pace of execution and tremendous client acceptance,” he added.
Indeed, the latest rise comes after a year of strong sales growth. While Ramp’s CEO and co-founder Eric Glyman declined to provide specific sales statistics, he did say that revenue increased by “near to a 10x” year over year in 2021. Stripe, D1 Capital Partners, Iconiq Capital, Thrive Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Coatue Management, Iconiq, Altimeter, Stripe, Lux Capital, Vista Public Strategies, Spark Capital, and Definition Capital were among the major existing backers who took part in the latest equity financing, bringing Ramp’s total raised to $1.37 billion.
“What made this exceptional for us was that key current investors really pushed the raising and really saw the momentum and wanted to double down to make sure we’re well set up to continue to develop and push,” Glyman told me in an interview. General Catalyst, Avenir Growth Capital, 137 Ventures, and Declaration Partners joined the startup’s newest round of funding. Meanwhile, Citibank gave $300 million in loans to the corporation, with Goldman Sachs contributing another $150 million.
Time-based expansion, Since Ramp’s introduction in February 2020, a lot has changed. While the firm began by focusing on small-to-medium-sized companies (SMBs), it has now expanded to include “businesses of all sizes,” ranging from startups to multibillion-dollar corporations to potato farmers. Ramp is now used by over 5,000 firms, processing over $5 billion in annually payments. Its client base is expanding 7x year over year, and cardholder growth is over 15x. Ramp’s largest customers spend “in excess of $10 million each month,” according to Glyman.
“It took us two years to achieve 10,000 total cardholders, and now we’re adding that many in a month,” he said. The company has also expanded its services beyond corporate cards, with the purpose of assisting businesses in automating their money in general. Ramp, for example, made its first acquisition last year when it acquired Buyer, a negotiation-as-a-service firm with the purpose of saving its clients’ money on SaaS contracts. It began delivering integrated automated bill payments to all of its clients last October, and it extended into the travel industry earlier this year.
