Imprint

Giant banks have provided consumers with unsatisfying and impersonal options for co-branded credit cards, and now consumers expect better-aligned and rewarding payment experiences. As personal connections and brand loyalty become more important to consumers, Imprint is revolutionizing the way co-branded credit cards are built and managed to provide consumers with a more intelligent, personalized way to engage with their trusted brands.

Founded in 2020, and led by CEO Daragh Murphy, Imprint has positioned itself as an important innovator in financial technology. The firm partners with well-known retail, airline, and hospitality brands to create modern co-branded credit card programs. As a full stack player from underwriting to compliance and rewards and user experience, the company allows brands to deliver a variety of credit products that more closely align with customer interests and values. They use a digital-first platform as an intuitive and easy-to-understand way for users to access credit, in short, skipping the aggravatingly bureaucratic and impersonal steps that a company would find in its bank’s legacy systems.

Imprint is collaborating with brand partners like H-E-B, Turkish Airlines, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer and Holiday Inn Club Vacations to give cardholders valuable rewards along with authentic brand experiences. Instead of developing an off-the-shelf, generic card program, it embeds brand partnerships with its partners' brand-focused loyalty ecosystems which make the rewards more real and meaningful to consumers. Cardholders can access their cards through their mobile devices, see purchases on their cards in real-time, and receive rewards based on their actual shopping behaviors. The design of the firm is specifically intended for customers looking for clarity, high-speed access, and alignment with brands they love. The speed and customization element of Imprint's model is also worth noting.  The firm;s approach means that they can go from zero to branded card program in three months - much faster than traditional providers, and the speed to launch a program with a new partner is significantly reduced. Its unique infrastructure was entirely built from scratch for this express purpose - they are able to facilitate digital onboarding, automation of credit decisions, real-time transaction data and more. Imprint makes it easy for the customer by not charging fees in many cases, offering grace periods, and in some cases, forgiveness for the first late fee. As a result, many of the firm’s offerings may have no annual fee. As an alternative funding solution for immediate needs, Imprint combines traditional interest-based repayment models that produce the majority of its revenue from customer interest who carry a balance, with new fintech features such as instant approval, real-time card issuance, and embedded rewards offered by the brand partners. The company has made a substantial effort to enhance the value to customers over the longer term by aligning credit offerings specifically to a customer and their preferences versus a blanket offer. Imprint has also amplified the opportunity, value and desirability for co-brand credit cards, particularly with younger consumers with great brand loyalty.

Imprint reported impressive growth in 2024, surpassing 400,000 active cardholders - a significant increase from 2023. It also reported approximately $450 million in outstanding loan volume, and an increase in revenue to approximately $70 million in annual revenues vs $15 million the year prior. However, despite all of this growth, the company was still not profitable at the time of the report. In 2024 alone, it reported a net loss of approximately $35 million as it continued to build for growth, infrastructure and partners. While Imprint is negative, they do have more than $100 million in cash reserves and a clear plan to profitability and break-even with an eye on 2026.

To date, the firm has been successful in raising $202 million in equity financing. In October, 2024, Imprint raised $75 million in Series C funding which was led by Khosla Ventures and included investment from Thrive Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Ribbit Capital. Before this funding round, there were investments from investors such as Stripe and First Round Capital. In addition to equity, the company raised a $500 million warehouse credit facility in April 2025 from Mizuho, Truist, and HSBC that brought its total lending capacity close to $1 billion. Following their funding, Imprint had an estimated valuation of ~$600 million. 

The firm has also grown its team and global footprint. As of 2025, Imprint employed more than 150 people across engineering, data science, design, operations, and compliance. While the company is headquartered in New York City, it built out distributed teams in continuing to grow in major U.S. technology hubs (e.g., San Francisco, Austin, Chicago) and internationally as it has recently brought on talent based in Toronto and London. Ultimately, this global footprint demonstrates not just its growth ambitions but also its capacity to build partnerships with brands that operate in global markets.

Imprint is impressive in its success, but the competition is tough in the card-as-a-service and embedded finance world. Some of the key competitors in the firm’s range are Cardless, which has launched a digital-first credit card for brands like LATAM Airlines and even Manchester United; Deserve, a recently funded platform with white-label credit card solutions; and Marqeta, which is a conventional modern card-issuing platform with an expansive offering of highly customizable APIs. Moreover, competitors such as Affirm and Klarna, which focus mainly on buy-now-pay-later solutions, are still vying for the same consumer attention and loyalty from merchants in the retail finance ecosystem as Imprint. However, the company’s unique selling point is that it is vertically integrated in all aspects, from underwriting to user experience, and typically provides extensive customization for each of its brand partners. The firm is not simply offering brands "another credit card," it is seeking to help the brands they partner with to reimagine the experience of financially engaging with their customers. With complete end-to-end control, a flexible risk engine, and embedded loyalty rewards, it allows partnering brands to own that financial relationship rather than having a white-labeled name on some branded credit card.

Imprint plans to expand into hospitality, travel, and fashion, and explore fintech ecosystems for more integrations. CEO Daragh Murphy aims to make the company a strategic financial layer for consumer-facing brands, embedding credit into the shopping journey. With strong capital backing, user growth, and a mission-centric approach, Imprint is well-positioned to revamp brand loyalty through credit, modernizing an industry defined by tradition.

Click here to access Imprint's website.