Venture Capital Backs a 10x Revenue Surge Fueled by Coinbase and Bilt
Cardless, a San Francisco–based fintech that lets consumer-facing brands spin up fully featured credit cards in a matter of weeks, has closed a $60 million Series C round led by Spark Capital. The raise lifts total funding to more than $170 million and arrives at a moment when traditional card issuers are struggling to keep pace with rising customer-acquisition costs and the growing demand for crypto-denominated rewards. Spark’s renewed conviction—after early bets on Slack, Coinbase, and Anthropic—hinges on one metric: Cardless revenue has expanded ten-fold over the past twelve months, largely on the back of high-visibility launches with crypto heavyweight Coinbase and the real-estate rewards network Bilt.
For venture investors, the signal is unmistakable. In an otherwise cautious funding environment, any company that can pair double-digit month-over-month growth with a regulatory moat is a scarce asset. Cardless’s end-to-end stack handles underwriting, compliance, and dispute resolution, slashing the average card-program launch time from the industry-standard 18 months to just 90 days. By abstracting away the bank-partner complexity, the platform lets brands focus on differentiated rewards—an area where crypto shines. Coinbase cardholders, for example, can toggle between Bitcoin, stablecoin, or fiat cash-back at will, a flexibility that is deeply resonating with Gen-Z and millennial spenders.
Why Embedded Finance Matters to the Broader Crypto Ecosystem
On the surface, an airline, a property-management app, and a crypto exchange have little in common. Under the hood, however, all three share a strategic need to convert passive users into daily spenders and thus gather precious first-party data. By inserting a programmable credit line directly into a brand’s mobile app, Cardless is turning every checkout event into a loyalty touchpoint. Early data show that transactions on Cardless-powered programs have grown 400 percent year-over-year, with average ticket sizes outpacing comparable legacy co-brands by a wide margin.
The upside for crypto is twofold. First, the platform normalizes blockchain-based rewards, teaching consumers that digital assets can be as spendable—and as regulated—as airline miles. Second, it offers exchanges like Coinbase an on-ramp for non-custodial users who may be curious about crypto but unwilling to wire funds directly to a trading account. Every card swipe becomes a micro-accumulation opportunity, a mechanical dollar-cost-average strategy that dovetails neatly with long-term holding behavior.
Competitive Pressure: Legacy Banks, Stripe, and Brex Feel the Heat
Cardless is hardly alone in eyeing the $200 billion U.S. credit card profit pool. Stripe has quietly expanded its issuing APIs, while Brex courts startups with high-limit corporate cards. The incumbents, led by JPMorgan and American Express, still dominate interchange economics but are hamstrung by rigid core-banking systems. Cardless’s software-first approach lets it iterate on rewards logic—think real-time stablecoin staking yields or dynamic airline seat-upgrade offers—without a 12-month product cycle. Industry insiders note that banks now face an unpalatable choice: rip and replace decades-old infrastructure or partner with the very platforms that threaten to siphon off their most valuable customers.
Regulation remains the wild card. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is probing buy-now-pay-later providers, and the Securities and Exchange Commission continues to scrutinize crypto rewards programs. Cardless argues that its “compliance-as-code” framework—built in consultation with multiple card-network and banking partners—allows for rapid rule changes without sacrificing user experience. If the model holds, it could become the default template for any brand seeking to embed financial services while keeping direct ownership of the customer relationship.
Looking Ahead: From Branded Cards to Full-Stack Financial Super-Apps
The new capital injection is earmarked for three initiatives: doubling engineering headcount, expanding the rewards engine to cover everyday necessities like utilities and ride-hailing, and launching a slate of international programs timed to next year’s global sporting events. Cardless also hints at forthcoming debit and installment-credit products, which would complete its transition from a single-product issuer to a modular, bank-replacement layer. For crypto advocates, the biggest question is timeframe: When will mainstream consumers swipe—or tap—without caring whether the rewards ledger is a private database or a public blockchain? With venture dollars secured and marquee brands onboard, Cardless is betting that moment is closer than most incumbents dare to admit.
