We’re at an important moment in spend management. Traditionally, many software companies integrated their card offerings with their spend management software. It’s been viewed as a unified solution for both revenue generation and data collection. However, the moment has come when decoupling these two components could lead to greater flexibility and more innovative solutions in the market.
Take Ramp, for example. Ramp has built a significant portion of its business around card issuance. With payment volume estimates of $18B and revenue exceeding $300M, it's clear that cards are at the core of their business strategy. Of that $300M, a staggering $200M likely comes from their card program alone, thanks to the impressive margins of 250-280 basis points on each transaction.
For Ramp and many others, the card is not just a feature but a substantial revenue driver. This financial interdependence makes it difficult for companies to imagine decoupling card issuance from their spend management software without seeing a hit to their bottom line.
But beyond revenue, we have to look at the impact of data. Card issuance provides this invaluable resource and real-time insights into spending behavior. Real-time data enhances decision-making capabilities, allowing finance leaders to manage spend more efficiently, and provides a more superior experience for the end user. Platforms that can access this real-time information enable companies to act quickly. This could be capturing a receipt at the moment of purchase, rather than letting expenses accumulate into a month-end headache.
While proprietary cards provide data access, solutions like Astrada are proving that it's possible to access transaction data from any card, in real-time, just like a company’s self-issued card. This is where the argument for decoupling starts to gain momentum. We’re starting to see this trend take hold with Navan’s recent partnership with Brex and their overall shift to “bring-your-own-card” through Navan Connect. This functionality allows companies to maintain their existing card relationships, while also offering the seamless experience that businesses need without the constraints of proprietary systems. The moment an employee swipes a card, expenses are automatically uploaded, categorized, and reconciled.
The benefits of keeping card issuance and spend management integrated are not purely financial. The tight integration of cards and software creates a powerful, user-friendly experience for finance teams. With platforms like Brex and Ramp, companies have enjoyed the seamless functionality that an integrated system provides, much like Apple’s ecosystem, where hardware and software work together flawlessly.
However, this type of bundling has its limitations. Like Apple’s ecosystem, it reduces user choice. Some businesses prefer the flexibility of using their existing corporate or personal cards, while still benefiting from modern spend management solutions. This is where platforms like Astrada come in. By allowing users to integrate any card into their preferred spend management software, Astrada enables its customers to create new opportunities for customization and flexibility.
The question remains: Is decoupling spend management from card issuance the right move? If we view it from an opportunity perspective, the addressable market for a spend platform, when giving an end user the flexibility to use any card, grows immensely. After all, a common behavior for companies today is to use multiple software platforms to support company travel and expenses. There’s often the combination of a travel platform (e.g., Navan, Travelperk), an expense reporting platform (e.g., SAP Concur), and a card (e.g., American Express).
Tying the expense platform and the card together often works for smaller organizations, but as modern spend platforms attempt to address more Enterprise customers, the reality of being able to provide choice is inevitable. As Navan is proving, platforms that adopt bring-your-own-card (BYOC) and the ability to submit expenses in real time are seeing faster growth and increased customer satisfaction.
Decoupling allows spend management platforms to reach new customers, especially those in mid-market and enterprise sectors that already have established card programs and bank relationships. These companies want modern spend management tools but don’t want to be forced to choose between their bank and a spend platform.
While card programs can be lucrative, they also come with hidden costs. Compliance, chargebacks, missed payments, and operational complexities all eat into revenue. As regulatory environments evolve, the costs of maintaining a card program are likely to rise. This was illustrated by the challenges faced by companies like Evolve and Synapse, which have seen compliance requirements balloon, forcing them to reassess the sustainability of their card programs.
As more platforms explore decoupling card issuance from spend management, the conversation around flexibility and innovation will continue to evolve. Platforms like Astrada are proving that it's possible to offer a seamless experience without forcing companies into a single ecosystem. As this trend grows, spend management could shift from a bundled, proprietary offering to one that embraces flexibility and choice, offering new possibilities for businesses of all sizes.