Lithic has raised $115.0M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Lithic's investors include 01 Advisors, Accel, Afore Capital, Alumni Ventures, Amino Capital, Backend Capital, Basecamp Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, CapitalG, Chemistry VC, Contrary Capital, Elaia Partners.
Lithic is a fintech infrastructure company that provides a modern card issuing platform, enabling businesses to launch customizable debit, credit, and prepaid card programs via a developer-friendly API.[1][2][4] It serves high-growth startups and enterprises, such as Mercury, Order, and Splitwise, solving the inefficiencies of legacy issuer processors by offering fast setup, direct network connections, seamless reconciliation, and scalable handling of billions in transaction volume.[1][4] Lithic powers over 100 clients transforming payments, from virtual cards to disbursements, while targeting early-stage companies with simple use cases like procurement or warranty reimbursements, allowing them to capture interchange fees and own customer relationships.[1][2]
The platform emphasizes speed-to-market, 99.99%+ uptime, compliance tools, and customization, supporting physical, tokenized, and virtual cards for individuals and businesses.[4] Growth momentum is strong, with recognition as a top card issuing platform in 2022-2024, 200+ employees, and backing from leading investors, processing hundreds of millions in monthly volume for clients.[2][4][5]
Lithic originated in 2014 when founders launched Privacy.com in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, offering consumers single-use virtual cards for safe online payments.[2][5] Frustrated by a legacy issuer processor's slow launch (over a year), poor documentation, and scaling issues tied to 30-year-old mainframe tech, they built Lithic as a modern alternative with developer-friendly APIs, direct Federal Reserve and network connections, and flawless reconciliation.[1][2][4]
CEO Bo Jiang leads the New York-based team, evolving from Privacy's consumer tool—still operational but smaller and powered by Lithic's API—into a scalable B2B infrastructure provider.[1][5] Early traction came from internal needs, expanding to ambitious fintechs needing rapid card program deployment, humanizing their mission: access to better financial products improves lives.[2]
(Note: A separate entity, Lithic Tech in Portland, Oregon, focuses on custom software consulting and is unrelated.[3][6])
Lithic rides the wave of modern issuer processors disrupting the U.S. payments stack's issuing segment, long dominated by outdated mainframes.[1][2] Timing aligns with fintech proliferation—embedded finance, vertical SaaS (e.g., procurement), and digital banking—where companies seek to issue cards for revenue via interchange fees without building from scratch.[1]
Market forces favor Lithic: rising demand for virtual cards, disbursements, and programmable payments amid e-commerce growth and regulatory pushes for innovation.[2][4] It influences the ecosystem by enabling 100+ clients to transform industries, from startups owning customer data to enterprises like commercial fleets automating reimbursements, fostering a new era of accessible, API-driven financial infrastructure.[1][7]
Lithic is positioned for expansion as embedded payments explode, potentially deepening into credit products, global markets, and AI-driven fraud/risk tools amid rising fintech threats.[4][7] Trends like real-time payments and vertical-specific cards will shape its path, with scalability supporting enterprise wins and novel use cases.
Its influence may evolve from issuer to full payments orchestrator, amplifying fintechs' autonomy. As a pioneer born from real pain points, Lithic exemplifies how targeted infrastructure unlocks broader innovation in finance.
Lithic has raised $115.0M across 4 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $60.0M Series C in July 2021.
