The fintech ramp is riding the dollar wave by helping US companies seek coverage in international markets

Wwith investors bracing for a global recession, three-year-old fintech Ramp argues that its cross-border expansion could give American businesses the ability to operate more profitably. The New York City-based business credit card company announced Tuesday it launched international bill payments, buy-now-pay-later financing and employee reimbursement in 176 countries and 83 currencies.

The move comes as the US dollar extends its monster rally, soaring nearly 20% over the past year to a two-decade high, according to the closely watched dollar index. Historically, such dollar strength has been a harbinger of global recession — spelling trouble for foreign economies and U.S. companies with significant earnings abroad — but Ramp focuses on the silver lining.

“Over the past quarter, people have really started talking about what this means for the global economy, and it’s actually a bright spot for many business owners who are facing a lot of headwinds – whether it’s rising interest rates or the tight labor market,” says Eric Glyman , Ramp’s 32-year-old CEO. The dollar’s strength, he notes, has “led to a huge increase” in businesses offshoring costs to protect profits and is particularly good for companies that manufacture goods or employ people internationally. Non-US spending by Ramp customers has risen nearly sixfold year over year, eclipsing more than $100 million last month alone. The company is preparing for bigger numbers: The number of cards sent abroad has increased by 6,000% since last year.

With its international game, Ramp customers – all based in the US – can now pay suppliers in foreign currencies within minutes or reimburse employees in two days or less for expenses abroad. The company joins competitors such as Bill.com, which launched cross-border payments in 2019 and has since expanded its service to 130 countries, as well as corporate card giant American ExpressAXP
, which announced a similar digital-first feature in August. However, Ramp’s offering also integrates cross-border payments with its flagship spend management platform, which uses machine learning technology to analyze spend and recommend cost-saving moves. As part of the launch, Ramp has partnered with NetSuite to offer sales tax support, including automatically telling clients when they may be responsible for remittances or eligible for rebates on foreign transactions.

Among Ramp clients, New York City-based health tech startup Candid has reaped the benefits of a strong dollar by expanding its labor and manufacturing footprint overseas. The company, which raised $160 million from investors in November, makes braces similar to Invisalign and last month opened an 83,000-square-foot factory in the border city of Tijuana, Mexico. “We’re one of those companies that doesn’t have a ton of international exposure from a revenue standpoint, but we do have a ton of international exposure from a cost standpoint,” says CEO Nick Greenfield, citing lower transportation and manufacturing costs. He adds that Ramp’s algorithmic recommendations have helped generate about $15,000 in monthly savings by identifying things like duplicate software licenses and subscriptions.

Rising spending on foreign companies at Ramp has been greatest in freight services, with spending on major suppliers such as Maersk and FedEx Freight rising more than sixfold this year from 2021 levels. Spending on international shipping providers has grown more than 300%. Ramp says clients are increasingly using global freelance marketplaces such as Upwork and Toptal, where transactions have quadrupled this year.

The push helps expand Ramp’s reach in the $120 trillion payments market as many fintechs struggle. The Global X FinTech ETF, which counts payments companies Block and Adyen among its biggest components, has gained 49% this year, compared with a 21% decline for the S&P 500. Ramp, which makes money by taking a share of credit card interchange fees, got a valuation of $8.1 billion in March and has raised more than $1.4 billion from investors including Goldman Sachs, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Stripe. The company won’t disclose revenue, but now counts more than 10,000 businesses — including real estate giant Douglas Elliman, fintech Marqeta and software companies Anduril and Webflow — as customers, more than four times as many as a year ago.

“We started in the go-go days of WeWork and UberUBER
when the idea of ​​spending less was a nice idea but wasn’t critical,” Glyman says of the changing economy, recalling Ramp’s launch in 2020 just weeks before the pandemic forced unprecedented global shutdowns. “Now that capital costs continue to rise. , and combined with other challenges, this idea of ​​being more efficient with consumption and time has gone from nice to a real necessity.”