According to Silicon Republic, New York-based fintech Imprint has raised a $150 million Series D round, catapulting it to a $1.2 billion valuation and unicorn status. The funding was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Thrive Capital, Ribbit Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and others. The company was co-founded in 2020 by Irish-born CEO Daragh Murphy, a UCD law graduate and former WeWork executive, and Gaurav Ahuja. Imprint’s business involves designing and managing co-branded credit card programs for major brands like Booking.com and Rakuten, reporting a 200% year-on-year increase in its cardholder base. The new capital will be used to expand beyond credit into debit and secured cards, and to integrate AI for greater automation.
The Brand Loyalty Play
Here’s the thing: co-branded credit cards aren’t new. Your wallet probably has one from an airline or a big retailer. But Imprint’s whole pitch is that the old way, run through legacy bank processors, is slow and clunky. They’re selling “complete control” to the brands themselves. Basically, they’re arguing that in a world where customer loyalty is hard to get, the payment card shouldn’t be a generic bank product—it should be a core, flexible part of the brand experience. And with a 200% growth in cardholders, it seems some major brands are buying that argument. They’re not just a fintech; they’re trying to be a loyalty-tech platform.
The Tech and Timing Advantage
So what’s their secret sauce? It’s their proprietary stack, ImprintCore. Keith Rabois from Khosla Ventures said it lets them move with a “speed and customisation that legacy issuers simply cannot match.” That’s a powerful claim in enterprise sales. Now, the timing is interesting. We’re in a period where a lot of flashy, consumer-facing fintechs have struggled. But Imprint’s model is B2B2C—they sell to big enterprises (Booking.com, Rakuten) who then offer the product to *their* customers. That’s often a more stable, contract-driven revenue model. It’s less about viral growth and more about enterprise deal cycles. And apparently, that’s what VCs are willing to bet $150 million on right now.
What’s Next and the Big Question
With this war chest, Imprint says it’s expanding into debit, secured cards, and flexible financing. Using AI for automation is the obligatory buzzword, but the real goal is clear: become “the platform that powers premium access.” That’s a big vision. But I have to ask: how defensible is this? They have a tech lead now, but legacy banks can invest in tech, too. And other fintechs are surely looking at this lucrative corner of the market. Their three-year vision hinges on becoming indispensable to brands. It’s one thing to help launch a card program; it’s another to become the central “loyalty platform.” That’s a much harder, stickier proposition—and probably why they needed such a hefty raise to try and pull it off.
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