Priya Patel
TLDR:
- Deserve, a credit card software company valued at $500 million, is considering selling itself amid a fintech slowdown.
- The company, backed by high-profile investors, has faced challenges including having its largest customer, crypto lender BlockFi, go bankrupt.
Deserve, a Silicon Valley startup backed by Goldman Sachs, Visa, Mastercard, and Accel, is facing pressure in the slowing fintech market. The company, which helps other businesses launch and manage credit cards, has explored the possibility of selling itself according to sources familiar with the matter. Deserve, founded by Kalpesh Kapadia, has raised $150 million in equity funding since its inception in 2013, but is not yet profitable and burned through $15 to $20 million in 2023. Despite the challenges, Kapadia expects strong growth in 2024. Deserve’s original plan was to target underserved populations with consumer credit cards, but later pivoted to helping other companies launch credit cards. The company has faced setbacks such as the bankruptcy of its largest customer, crypto lender BlockFi, and struggles with floundering fintech customers in a competitive market. Deserve has positioned itself as a modern credit card ecosystem provider and aims to hit break-even by 2025.
