Fintech
Fintech Startup Coast Raises $40M Just 4 Months After Last Raising $25M
Coast, a startup that describes itself as “a financial services platform for the future of transportation,” has raised $40 million in Series B funding, just four months after announcing 25 million dollars round, the startup told TechCrunch exclusively.
Back-to-back fundraisers were common before and during the wild investment days of 2021, but have become much rarer since the VC market crash of 2022. That makes Coast’s latest haul remarkable.
Based in New York It costs It competes with companies like Ramp and Brex in that it has developed expense management software for fleet operators and their employees. To that end, and like the aforementioned expense management companies, Coast has created a business credit card designed for companies that manage vehicle fleets, and that niche has worked well for the company. While Coast declined to disclose concrete revenue numbers, CEO and founder Daniel Simon told TechCrunch that the startup has grown about “10x” in both annualized revenue and payment volume over the past 18 months. (We’ll just make the obvious caveat that a rapid growth rate could indicate a small starting base.)
Coast counts “thousands of companies” as customers that operate fleets in service industries such as HVAC, plumbing, lawn and gardening, and pest control; construction; government fleets; and long-haul trucking, some with just a handful of fleet cards and others with more than 1,000, the company says. To date, it has issued more than 100,000 cards.
Image Credits: It costs
ICONIQ Growth led Coast’s Series B round, which also included participation from existing backers Accel, Insight Partners, Vesey Ventures and Avid Ventures, as well as new investor Thomvest. Synchrony also provided a separate “strategic investment” of an undisclosed amount in the company, a move Coast says is in line with the financial services giant’s partnerships with major national tire and auto parts retailers like Discount Tire and Pep Boys.
With the raise, the company says it has secured nearly $100 million in capital since its founding in late 2020. Simon declined to disclose Coast’s latest valuation. ICONIQ Growth general partner Yoonkee Sull has joined the fintech startup’s board of directors as part of the new funding.
“With our ambitious growth targets and an uncertain capital markets environment, it made sense to provide the company with additional capital,” said Simon.
As for growth, Simon told TechCrunch that Coast continues to grow among small and medium-sized businesses.
“We’ve also accelerated the adoption of our spend management product for non-fuel use cases,” he said. “In these new cohorts, non-fuel use has grown to over 30% of spend and has continued to grow steadily.”
The company makes money by earning merchant interchange fees when its customers use the Coast card to make purchases. And it charges customers a flat subscription fee of $4 per month per card that is actively used to make payments that month.
Coast released a mobile app this month that Simon says makes it easier for its customers to track receipts, match them to work codes and verify transactions. It plans to use its new capital to develop products and partnerships, including offering invoice automation and bill payment services.
Coast has about 65 employees, up from about 50 a year ago, and plans to increase its staff to about 85 by the end of the year.
Want more fintech news delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to TechCrunch Fintech Here.
Want to reach out to me with a tip? Email me at maryann@techcrunch.com or message me on Signal at 408.204.3036. You can also send a note to the entire TechCrunch team at tips@techcrunch.com. For more secure communication, Click here to contact uswhich includes SecureDrop (instructions here) and links to encrypted messaging apps.