Fintech startup Ramp sees valuation jump to $13 billion after share sale deal

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(Reuters) -Ramp, a fintech startup that offers corporate cards and software for managing employee expenses, was valued at $13 billion in a tender offer round that lets some employees and investors cash out, signaling renewed investor appetite in high-growth startups.

The five-year-old startup hit the new valuation as it sold $150 million worth of its secondaries to investors including Singaporean wealth fund GIC, Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst, Ramp said in a statement on Monday. The New York-based startup was valued at $7.65 billion in a funding round last April.

The company didn’t disclose its revenue, but a source familiar with its financials said its annualized revenue has grown to $700 million. 

Ramp joins other high-profile startups, from Databricks to Stripe, in allowing employees to cash out their shares, a move that could delay the companies’ IPO plans.

“We want to find a way to partner, but didn’t have a primary (funding) need. Secondary was a great fit, where it could allow us to deepen partnerships with investors that we were really dying to work with,” said Eric Glyman, Ramp’s co-founder and chief executive, who added the company is on a path to reach cash-flow positive. 

Last week, Stripe announced a tender offer for employees and shareholders that valued the company at $91.5 billion, nearly 41% higher than its valuation a year ago, potentially delaying the fintech firm’s ambitions of going public. 

Ramp serves over 30,000 customers, from family farms to space startups, and powers over $55 billion in annualized payment volume across card transactions and bill payments, up from $10 billion in January 2023, the company said. 

(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in San Francisco; Editing by Alan Barona and Lincoln Feast.)