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Lamp, a start-up for corporate payments supported by Peter Thiel and thriving capital, has nearly doubled its valuation to $13 billion as financial technology companies recovered from a painful period of low spending and economic uncertainty.
Five years ago the company reached a new valuation as part of a stock sale where investors, including venture capitalists such as Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, US private equity group Stripe, Josh Kushner’s prosperity, Hoslavia Venture and General Catalyst, purchased $150 million worth of employee stock.
The New York-based Lamp, which controlled expenses, corporate cards and accounting automation for businesses, was valued at $7.65 billion last April. The company already supports some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent investors, including Sequoia Capital and the Thiel’s Founders Fund.
The leap in valuation will place the lamp among the most highly regarded US startups outside a handful of artificial intelligence companies such as Openai with a leap to $13 billion.
This follows rapid growth due to increased spending on card transactions and bill payments. However, Lamp co-founder and CEO Eric Grimann emphasized that he has benefited from using AI across the company.
“It’s impossible to use lamps without using AI,” he said, adding that the technology quickly moved from a simple chatbot to “deeply integrated into every part of the business: the cost of doing yourself, the book of doing yourself, the money to find higher yields.”
“We live in a world where computers can talk, think, and finances can reason, making sure your capital has more value each month,” he said.
Chief Executive Eric Griman said Lamp benefited from using AI across the company
The lamp’s valuation reached $8.1 billion in 2022, but fell to $5.8 billion a year later as high interest rates collided with consumer spending.
“Fintech clearly experienced volatility considering wild swings in rates and corporate and consumer spending,” said Kareem Zaki, a partner at Thrive Capital, who led the company’s investment in RAMP.
“The companies that we shared before the recession continued to share, but customer spending has declined. Now the market is turning around and they are accelerating,” he added.
Lamp’s annual revenue is $700 million, a metric often used by fast-growing startups that increase revenues by 12 this month, according to people with financial knowledge. That figure is up from $300 million in August 2023.
According to Glyman, the company processes $55 billion in annual payments on an annual basis, compared to $1 billion in early 2023.
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The company aims to be a platform for corporate customers, diversifying beyond payments to procurement and travel booking.
Zaki said this is reminiscent of Stripe, another thriving portfolio company, Stripe, Silicon Valley’s most well-known fintech company.
The largest US startups are increasingly considering using regular secondary stock sales to allow staff cash out as companies remain private for longer.
The Lamp stock sales were arranged to allow early employees to release some of the fairness of the business by “sending children from school or paying a down payment at home.” He added that the company has no plans to launch a public offer.
