Latest news with #Ramp

Finextra
11-07-2025
- Business
- Finextra
Ramp rolls out AI agents
Ramp AI Finance Automation officially launches with a new set of AI agents that are meant to make the work of finance teams easier. 0 This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. Ramp's smart automation helps businesses of all sizes cut down on manual tasks, increase productivity, and make decisions about money faster. It does everything from approving expenses to analysing spending in real time. Finance teams are being asked to do more with less, yet the function remains largely manual. Teams using legacy platforms today spend up to 70% of their time on tasks like expense review, policy enforcement, and compliance audits. As a result, 59% of professionals in controllership roles report making several errors each month. Ramp's agents for controllers solve these problems by eliminating redundant tasks, working autonomously to review expenses and enforce policy. Built on Ramp Intelligence, powered by OpenAI's reasoning models Ramp's agents for controllers apply context-aware, human-like reasoning to manage entire workflows independently and proactively. Unlike traditional automation that relies on basic rules and conditional logic, these agents reason and act on behalf of the finance team, working independently to enforce spend policies at scale, immediately prevent violations, and continuously improve company spending guidelines. Ramp agents are meticulous, auditable, and consistent, escalating issues when needed and providing a clear audit trail for every decision. Early customers reported 99% accuracy in expense approvals1. Ramp's AI agents act on data instantly, giving finance teams a co-pilot for real-time operations by suggesting actions and pointing out problems. 'Before Ramp agents, we manually reviewed 100% of transactions. Now, Ramp agents take the first pass and flag what actually needs our attention. Every decision Ramp makes is logged with a clear audit trail. Accuracy matters, and Ramp consistently gets it right. We've seen fewer errors, faster reviews, and stronger policy enforcement across the board,' said Richard Gobea, Finance Manager at Quora. Ramp agents are powered by Ramp Intelligence, Ramp's AI platform that automates expense reporting, data entry, contract review, and accounting accuracy. Agents learn and adapt directly from company policies and feedback from users to: Approve low-risk expenses or provide a recommendation with rationale to the approver Alert of suspicious receipts and invoices Answer employee questions about spend policy Uncover trends that signal fraud or careless spend Suggest edits to company expense policies based on usage and feedback 'Ramp agents have complete knowledge of your accounting rules and expense policies that employees don't carry in their heads, plus instant access to transaction details that finance teams would need time to gather. This lets them act faster and more accurately on every transaction,' said Karim Atiyeh, co-founder and CTO at Ramp. 'This isn't just automation. It's intelligent reasoning that handles complex financial decisions to reduce errors, strengthen policy enforcement, and stop fraud.' 'It's amazing to see what Ramp has built with our newest reasoning models,' said Olivier Godement, head of platform product at OpenAI. 'These agents are taking care of key financial processes and, most importantly, getting them right – letting teams focus on deeper strategic work.' The AI advantage for finance Ramp agents put best-in-class AI into the hands of finance teams and provide a new layer of engineering support to resource-constrained teams. Ramp invests 50% of its payroll in research and development so every finance team, no matter the size, can benefit from the latest breakthroughs in AI automation and reasoning. 'Ramp takes the manual work off our plate and gives us the confidence that we're ahead of emerging AI fraud threats before they hit us,' said Lawrence Dann-Fenwick, Head of Strategic Finance at Hex. Finance teams at leading AI companies like Notion, Hex, Sierra, and Quora already use Ramp to move faster, operate smarter, and stretch every dollar further.

Miami Herald
10-07-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
The easiest types of business credit cards to get approved for
Need quick financing for your business? While secured cards offer one pathway, other alternatives exist for those with fair credit scores, including corporate cards with flexible requirements. Ramp reviews business credit card options accessible without excellent credit or, in some cases, without a personal guarantee requirement. Let's explore these card types in detail to help you determine which option best suits your business type and current credit situation. What are the easiest business credit cards to get approved for? If you have good or excellent personal credit or if you have an established business with a good business credit score, most business credit cards should be fairly easy to get approved for. However, if your personal credit score is less than stellar, you still have some options: Secured business credit cards: You can typically get a secured business credit card no matter your personal credit score. This type of business credit card requires an initial deposit that acts as your credit limit. Secured business credit cards are a great way to help you build credit as you pursue some of the more attractive business credit business credit cards: A fair credit score is generally around 580–669 in the FICO range or 601–660 for VantageScore. You can find business credit cards for fair credit, though your options are more limited, and they typically don't offer competitive rewards or credit cards: Most corporate cards don't require a credit check or personal guarantee. Instead, they rely on factors like your business revenue or cash on hand, and you can typically apply with your Employer Identification Number (EIN) only. However, these cards usually aren't available to sole proprietorships or partnerships. What businesses of every size should look for in a credit card Not all business credit cards are created equal, and what works for a startup won't necessarily benefit an enterprise. Here's an overview of the key features to look for based on your company's size and its unique needs. Small business owners When you're building a small business, accessible credit is key. The right card establishes your financial credibility while supporting your day-to-day operations. What to look for: Cards with minimal or no personal credit requirements that approve based on your business revenue. These business credit cards don't report to personal credit bureaus, protecting your personal credit while giving you the business financing you card options that have clear paths to upgrade to unsecured cards. The best secured cards report to business credit bureaus and automatically review your account for or no annual fees to keep costs down as you grow. Business credit cards with no annual fee give you essential credit without adding extra expenses to your new flat-rate rewards structures so you don't have to track complex categories. Straightforward cashback business credit cards let you maximize returns without spending time optimizing rewards. Startups As a startup, you need financing that's as flexible as you are. The right credit card gives you room to grow while helping you manage unpredictable cash flow. What to look for: Cards with 0% introductory APR periods of at least 9-12 months for your initial investments. This interest-free time helps you manage cash flow during your critical early growth expense management software that connects with your accounting platforms. These tools automate categorization and reporting, saving your finance team valuable card capabilities for short-term projects and controlled vendor spending. Virtual cards boost security while letting you control exactly where company money is credit limits based on cash in the bank rather than your business credit history. Revenue-based underwriting gives fast-growing startups the financing capacity they need, even with a limited track record. Mid-size companies As a mid-size business, you need card solutions that can scale with you. Look for cards with custom controls and reporting features, plus integration capabilities. What to look for: Comprehensive expense management platforms with customizable policies and approval workflows. These systems automatically enforce your policies while giving you real-time visibility into spending across the card programs with individual spending limits and category restrictions. Customizable controls let you empower your team while keeping spending in reporting and analytics to identify spending patterns and savings opportunities. Data-driven insights help you optimize vendor relationships and spot potential consolidation capabilities with your accounting software, ERP systems, and business checking account. Seamless data flow eliminates manual reconciliation and keeps your financial systems accurate. Enterprise companies Enterprise organizations need sophisticated card programs built around control, security, and integration with existing systems. The ideal enterprise card solution works as a comprehensive spend management platform. What to look for: Enterprise-grade spend management systems with department-level dashboards and controls. These platforms give you centralized oversight and decentralized administration to manage complex organizational fraud protection features, including real-time monitoring and customizable alerts, and sophisticated security measures protect you against increasingly advanced financial threats that target larger access and developer tools for custom integration with your proprietary systems. Open APIs enable seamless connection with your enterprise financial infrastructure and custom reporting account management with customized service level agreements. Look for enterprise-level support that offers strategic guidance to help you get the most out of your program. The right business credit card is an essential tool in your financial toolkit. Whether you're an entrepreneur just starting out or an enterprise with complex needs, there's a card out there that will help you reach your goals. Focus on the features that matter most for your business size and stage, and you'll be well on your way to growth. How your business credit score affects approval Your business credit score is one of the key factors that lenders may consider when evaluating your application. Most traditional business credit cards require a good to excellent personal credit score, but some secured or corporate cards rely more on business financials, like revenue or cash flow. If you're just starting out or have limited credit history, more accessible options like secured cards and business credit cards with no personal guarantee can help you build a business credit profile over time. Regular use and on-time payments will gradually improve your business credit score, opening up better credit opportunities in the future. How to increase your chances of getting approved for a business credit card Your chances of getting approved for a business credit card rely heavily on your personal credit score and your business's cash flow. If you're concerned about whether you'll qualify for the card you want, here are some tips to help increase your chances of getting approved: Check your credit reports: Review your personal and business credit reports and dispute any errors or incorrect information. Pay down your existing balances as much as possible, and avoid new hard inquiries before applying for your chosen with a secured credit card: You can usually get a secured business credit card even with bad personal credit. Although you'll need to put down a deposit, these cards can help you build credit and put you in a better position to get approved on future your business credit: An established business credit report can help increase your approval odds and get you a higher credit limit. Once you set up your business entity and get an EIN, there are some simple steps you can take to build business credit, including getting a DUNS number and opening a business bank account. Once you're approved, make sure you use your business credit card the right way. Responsible use of your card over time is the best way to build credit and increase your chances of getting approved for the best business credit cards. This story was produced by Ramp and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. © Stacker Media, LLC.
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ramp Introduces AI Agents to Automate Finance Operations
NEW YORK, July 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ramp, the leading financial operations platform, announced its first AI agents, agents for controllers, to automatically enforce company expense policies, eliminate unauthorized spending, and prevent fraud. This is the first in a series of powerful and specialized agents Ramp is releasing this year to further reduce manual tasks faced by finance teams. Finance teams are being asked to do more with less, yet the function remains largely manual. Teams using legacy platforms today spend up to 70% of their time on tasks like expense review, policy enforcement, and compliance audits. As a result, 59% of professionals in controllership roles report making several errors each month. Ramp's agents for controllers solve these problems by eliminating redundant tasks, working autonomously to review expenses and enforce policy. Built on Ramp Intelligence, powered by OpenAI's reasoning modelsRamp's agents for controllers apply context-aware, human-like reasoning to manage entire workflows independently and proactively. Unlike traditional automation that relies on basic rules and conditional logic, these agents reason and act on behalf of the finance team, working independently to enforce spend policies at scale, immediately prevent violations, and continuously improve company spending guidelines. Ramp agents are meticulous, auditable, and consistent, escalating issues when needed and providing a clear audit trail for every decision. Early customers reported 99% accuracy in expense approvals1. "Before Ramp agents, we manually reviewed 100% of transactions. Now, Ramp agents take the first pass and flag what actually needs our attention. Every decision Ramp makes is logged with a clear audit trail. Accuracy matters, and Ramp consistently gets it right. We've seen fewer errors, faster reviews, and stronger policy enforcement across the board," said Richard Gobea, Finance Manager at Quora. Ramp agents are powered by Ramp Intelligence, Ramp's AI platform that automates expense reporting, data entry, contract review, and accounting accuracy. Agents learn and adapt directly from company policies and feedback from users to: Approve low-risk expenses or provide a recommendation with rationale to the approver Alert of suspicious receipts and invoices Answer employee questions about spend policy Uncover trends that signal fraud or careless spend Suggest edits to company expense policies based on usage and feedback "Ramp agents have complete knowledge of your accounting rules and expense policies that employees don't carry in their heads, plus instant access to transaction details that finance teams would need time to gather. This lets them act faster and more accurately on every transaction," said Karim Atiyeh, co-founder and CTO at Ramp. "This isn't just automation. It's intelligent reasoning that handles complex financial decisions to reduce errors, strengthen policy enforcement, and stop fraud." "It's amazing to see what Ramp has built with our newest reasoning models," said Olivier Godement, head of platform product at OpenAI. "These agents are taking care of key financial processes and, most importantly, getting them right – letting teams focus on deeper strategic work." The AI advantage for financeRamp agents put best-in-class AI into the hands of finance teams and provide a new layer of engineering support to resource-constrained teams. Ramp invests 50% of its payroll in research and development so every finance team, no matter the size, can benefit from the latest breakthroughs in AI automation and reasoning. "Ramp takes the manual work off our plate and gives us the confidence that we're ahead of emerging AI fraud threats before they hit us," said Lawrence Dann-Fenwick, Head of Strategic Finance at Hex. Finance teams at leading AI companies like Notion, Hex, Sierra, and Quora already use Ramp to move faster, operate smarter, and stretch every dollar further. To learn more about Ramp agents visit: About RampRamp is a financial operations platform designed to save companies time and money. Our all-in-one solution combines payments, corporate cards, vendor management, procurement, travel booking, and automated bookkeeping with built-in intelligence to maximize the impact of every dollar and hour spent. Over 40,000 customers, from family farms to space startups, have saved $10 billion and 27.5 million hours with Ramp. Founded in 2019, Ramp enables tens of billions in purchases annually. Learn more at 1. Based on Ramp internal analysis conducted on 7/1/25, evaluating the percentage of transactions Ramp agents recommended for approval that were also approved by human reviewers. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Ramp Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data


Skift
20-06-2025
- Business
- Skift
Ramp Raises $200 Million for Expense and Biz Travel Management: Startup Funding Roundup
Startups for business travel management and flying taxis are still raising a lot of money. Travel Startup Funding This Week Each week we round up jd@ if you have funding news. Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding . Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes atif you have funding news. There's a lot of money going into tech platforms to manage business travel and expenses. The most recent is Ramp, which raised $200 million this week. It comes months after TravelPerk raised $200 million, with multiple other companies raising smaller rounds. Also this week: Navan, a corporate travel agency, has taken a step toward becoming a public company. And flying taxi companies — most recently Archer Aviation — have been raising billions of dollars in their race to operate commercially. Between Ramp, Archer Aviation, and a small startup, travel companies raised over $1 billion in the past week. Ramp: $200 Million Ramp, an expense management platform with travel booking capabilities, has raised $200 million in series E funding. The latest funding values the company at $16 billion, a jump from $13 billion since its previous fundraise in March and $7.65 billion since its series D extension in 2024. Founders Fund led the round for the fifth time. Other investors included Thrive Capital, D1 Capital Partners, General Catalyst, GIC, ICONIQ Growth, Khosla Ventures, Sands Capital, 8VC, Lux Capital, Stripes, 137 Ventures, Avenir Growth, and Definition Capital. Ramp said it has now raised a total of $1.4 billion in equity financing. The New York City-based company started with a focus on corporate cards and helping clients manage receipts, but it's been building out tech since 2022 to help client companies book and manage travel. The company's Ramp Travel product allows clients' employees to book travel with inventory from Priceline. The platform also has integrations with TravelPerk, Lyft and Uber for Business. Ramp automatically collects receipts from any bookings with partners, removing the need to submit expenses. Client companies can set travel policies and manage approvals through the platform. Ramp last month released a feature that automatically rebooks a hotel if the price drops. It's one of 270 features that the company has released this year, which the company said were all developed with the help of AI. Ramp said it has more than 40,000 companies, including CBRE, Shopify, Anduril, Notion, Cursor, Vercel, and Barry's. The company said its platform handles $80 billion in purchases annually. Ramp said the funding will go toward improving the AI-powered product and expanding business, particularly in the U.S. Archer Aviation: $850 Million Archer Aviation, which is developing a flying taxi for urban use, has raised $850 million. The funding comes from a direct offering of 85 million shares of stock for $10 per share. The company had previously raised nearly $2 billion, including $430 million last year. California-based Archer is developing an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft called Midnight. It is designed to hold a pilot with four passengers and luggage for urban trips of 20-50 miles at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour. It is powered by six independent battery packs, each supporting a pair of electric engines. The company is also developing aircraft for the U.S. military. Archer said in May that it plans to provide air taxi services for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and for Team USA. The company last year unveiled plans for an air taxi network in Los Angeles. The network includes vertiports (eVTOL airports) at Los Angeles International Airport, University of Southern California, Orange County, Santa Monica, Hollywood Burbank, Long Beach, and the Van Nuys neighborhood. The company is also planning to establish a vertiport near the SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles football teams Rams and Chargers. The plan is to begin LA network operations in 2026. This is in addition to plans for a network at California airports where Southwest Airlines operates, along with five vertiports in the Bay Area. Travlounge: $2.9 Million Travlounge, which designs roadside rest stops with sleeping pods, has raised $2.9 million (250 million Indian rupees). The funding comes from Gokulam Group. India-based Travlounge says its facilities include tech-enabled sleeping pods, washrooms, cafes, travel-focused markets, and charging stations for electric vehicles. The company has also released an app for trip planning. The funding will go toward expanding beyond its first two locations in India.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Startups Weekly: Fast and furious
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Some startups accrued value at lightning speed this week, and we got confirmation that defense tech is red hot. Many startup stories this week occurred in Y Combinator's orbit in some way. Also, Israel once again lived up to its 'Start-Up Nation' reputation. That was fast: No-code website-building platform Wix acquired 6-month-old, bootstrapped vibe-coding startup Base44 — both Israeli companies — for $80 million in cash. That was fast, too: In just three months, Ramp's valuation jumped to $16 billion following its Series E, up from $13 billion when the spend management startup did a secondary sale earlier this year. Friends and foes: New details emerged on Meta's $14.3 billion deal to acquire 49% of startup Scale AI, including a potential dividend payout. We also learned that OpenAI was dropping Scale AI as a data provider following the deal. Frenemies: The U.S. Department of Defense awarded a contract worth up to $200 million directly to OpenAI, which could further strain the startup's relationship with Microsoft. ICYMI: Out of all the teams presenting at YC's recent Spring 2025 Demo Day, here are 11 startups that investors have been talking about. Didn't happen: People are also still talking about the police shutting down the YC Demo Day after-party that controversial AI startup Cluely tried to throw; or as its CEO told TechCrunch, 'the most legendary party that never happened.' Most funding news was driven by either defense tech, AI, or both, but there were also some surprises. Plus, one VC firm is aiming high for its next fund. Good intuition: Applied Intuition, a company making software for autonomous vehicles, secured a $600 million Series F and tender offer at a $15 billion valuation. New tune: Munich-based defense tech startup Helsing closed a €600 million investment led by Prima Materia, the VC firm of Spotify's founder Daniel Ek, which valued Helsing at €12 billion. New unicorn: Israeli observability startup Coralogix became a unicorn after raising a $115 million Series E, which it will use to double its headcount in India, where 100 of its 550 employees are currently based. Toldja: Mach Industries, a 2-year-old defense tech startup, confirmed having raised a $100 million round of funding led by Khosla Ventures and Bedrock at a $470 million valuation. Money flows: Aspora, a startup formerly known as Vance and focused on facilitating remittances from the Indian diaspora, closed a $50 million Series B co-led by Sequoia and Greylock at a $500 million valuation. Change of heart: Sword Health, an AI-powered digital health startup that began as a virtual physical therapy solution, locked in $40 million at a $4 billion valuation in a funding round led by returning investor General Catalyst. It also pushed back its IPO plans to at least 2028. Multiplier effect: Multiplier Holdings announced having raised $27.5 million across seed and Series A rounds after joining the growing trend of buying legacy service businesses — in its case, accounting firms — and scaling them with AI. Stock where you shop: Grifin, a startup whose app helps users buy stock from brands they shop at, such as Walmart, secured $11 million in a Series A round. Out of Sweden: Polar, a payment infrastructure platform for developers and AI-first businesses, raised a $10 million seed round led by Accel. Its CEO previously co-founded Tictail, which was acquired by Shopify in 2018. Bullish: Global VC Endeavor Catalyst is seeking to raise $300 million for its fifth fund. This would be its largest yet, as it looks to deepen its bet on fast-growing startups in emerging markets. An early investor in Chime, founder-turned-VC Alexa von Tobel is ready for Fintech 3.0. 'The next wave of innovation won't come from superficial tweaks but from fundamental deep product reinvention — tools that meet the needs of a changing economy and a more diverse, digitally native population,' she told TechCrunch in an interview. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data