Digital expense management company Expensify launched a corporate card this week, building on its automated transaction tracking technology. The card offers business customers a new tool to manage expenses and adds to the data repository that will help Expensify tailor customer experiences.
David Barrett, CEO of the San Francisco-based company, told Bank Innovation that the product will improve clients’ abilities to manage expenses in a single platform. “The goal is to remove all the tedious labor, whether it’s for the business traveler who is having to scrape together receipts or the manager who is trying to approve things for the budget,” he said. “You don’t have to take your phone out of your pocket to use Expensify because you can just use the card.”
When an employee makes a purchase with the card, Expensify automatically will alert the employee if the purchase requires approval. The real-time expense tracking means employees no longer need to retroactively dig through transaction data if they lose a receipt. It’s a means to help clients stay responsible with spending, Barrett explained. Prior to the Expensify card, employees of client companies would have to scan or take pictures of their receipts.
Expensify charges companies a $5 monthly subscription fee per active user, and generates revenue through interchange fees. The company is focusing on onboarding existing clients to the card before targeting new prospects. According to Barrett, Expensify is seeing “hundreds” of applications an hour for the corporate card.
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Expensify began as a corporate card company when it first launched in 2008. According to Barrett, the company pivoted to expense management because customers expressed that tracking receipts was a bigger pain point than cards. “It’s shocking how manual this process is,” he said. “Historically, you would have a stack of receipts that you would physically give someone, and they would have to do it manually.”
Expensify’s competitors include TravelBank and Bento for Business. Despite the crowded field, Barrett said the market is big enough to support multiple players. “The market is so giant and largely untapped, it’s like we’re on different sides of the Earth,” he added.
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