Cardless Scores $30 Million Investment

<p><span class&equals;"legendSpanClass"><span class&equals;"xn-location"><strong>SAN FRANCISCO<&sol;strong> <&sol;span><&sol;span>&&num;8212&semi; <u>Cardless<&sol;u>&comma; a company specializing in co-branded credit card solutions&comma; announced a <span class&equals;"xn-money">&dollar;30 million<&sol;span> growth investment round led by Activant Capital&comma; with participation from new and existing investors including Mischief &lpar;the fund co-founded by Plaid&&num;8217&semi;s <span class&equals;"xn-person">Zach Perret<&sol;span>&rpar;&comma; Industry Ventures&comma; Thayer Ventures&comma; Assurant and Amex Ventures&period; This brings Cardless&&num;8217&semi; total equity funding to date to over <span class&equals;"xn-money">&dollar;90 million<&sol;span>&period; Despite industry challenges like rising interest rates and inflation&comma; Cardless reports more than 10x revenue growth since the start of 2023&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The new funding will support the company&&num;8217&semi;s continued development of industry-leading co-branded credit card and loyalty products&comma; ongoing talent hiring in engineering and operations&comma; and expansion into major retail&comma; e-commerce&comma; and SMBs&period; Cardless is the only fintech to power co-brand cards on all three of the largest global payment networks&colon; Visa&comma; Mastercard&comma; and American Express&comma; and one of only a handful of fintechs in the US to offer through its platform a Visa Infinite product&comma; Visa&&num;8217&semi;s most premium card variant&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Over the last 12 months we&&num;8217&semi;ve been able to design products for some of the best brands in the world&comma; including Qatar Airways and Alibaba&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said <span class&equals;"xn-person">Michael Spelfogel<&sol;span>&comma; Co-Founder and President of Cardless&period; &&num;8220&semi;These brands chose us because of our differentiated approach to the entire co-branded card experience&period; From embedded servicing to leveraging a brand&&num;8217&semi;s data for personalized sign-up offers&comma; Cardless delivers an experience that other cobrand-focused banks and fintechs cannot match&period; We&&num;8217&semi;ll use this funding to further build out a world-class team&comma; enabling us to scale both new and existing programs&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the past year&comma; the company says it has tripled its Gross Transaction Value &lpar;GTV&rpar; and increased its Annual Recurring Revenue &lpar;ARR&rpar; by fivefold&period; Cardholder numbers have doubled in the last six months&comma; and its premium co-branded cards are averaging nearly 20 transactions per month&comma; reflecting strong top-of-wallet behavior&period; With a global presence working with brands across four continents&comma; Cardless continues to lead in co-branded card innovation and growth&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In 2024&comma; Cardless continued to expand its portfolio of co-branded credit cards with a series of high-profile launches&period; The company partnered with major airlines like Avianca and <span class&equals;"xn-location">Qatar<&sol;span>&comma; the latter of which won World&&num;8217&semi;s Best Airline for the 8th time at the 2024 World Airline Awards&comma; managed by Skytrax&period; These additions build on Cardless existing partnerships with LATAM and TAP Air Portugal&comma; bringing their total number of airline co-branded partners to four&period; Additionally&comma; Cardless ventured into the business and e-commerce space by partnering with Alibaba to introduce its first business credit card&comma; designed for small and medium-sized businesses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Cardless is attacking one of the largest markets in fintech that has historically been woefully underserved&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said <span class&equals;"xn-person">Andrew Steele<&sol;span>&comma; Co-founder of Activant Capital&period; &&num;8220&semi;Before Cardless&comma; the largest brands in the world had been unwilling to launch credit cards because the customer experience provided by cobrand-focused banks didn&&num;8217&semi;t meet their standards&period; Cardless has been able to take the industry head on and launch cards with some of the most sought-after brands on the market&period; Cardless has built the only embedded platform capable of servicing both consumers and SMBs and we&&num;8217&semi;re excited to double down as they continue to scale large programs for some of the best companies in the world&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;