Extend Offers Innovative Tools to Help Businesses Manage Credit Card Spend and Prevent Fraud

In a Nutshell:  Extend provides businesses with a platform to manage company credit cards. It serves clients across various industries, and its solutions fit the needs of big and small companies. Extend efficiently onboards new businesses to its platform. It offers resources to help its clients maximize their time and use of Extend’s products and services. 

Credit cards extend convenience to cardholders. Credit cards allow people to buy goods now and pay for them later.

Virtual credit cards can enhance the convenience of a physical credit card, particularly regarding fraud prevention. Virtual cards can use a unique and temporary card number for each transaction, making the theft of a card’s information less valuable to criminals.

Extend offers a platform to help businesses manage credit card spend and oversee virtual credit cards. We spoke with two of Extend’s three Co-Founders, Andrew Jamison and Guillaume Bouvard, to learn more about the company’s innovative solutions. Jamison and Bouvard serve as Extend’s CEO and COO/CMO, respectively.

Jamison said he and his co-founders formed Extend in the 2017, and the company works with more than 6,500 business customers and has 80 employees. He said half of the company’s employees work from its headquarters in New York, and the other half work remotely.

Jamison said Extend’s services enable businesses to keep the cards they have and the banks they trust while gaining the ability to manage card spend with better controls and efficiency. By creating virtual cards with Extend from their existing credit cards, customers can set card limits, expiration dates, and auto-refill rules, as well as deactivate virtual cards as needed. Jamison said these features mean secure virtual cards can reduce the risk and hassle of fraud.

“We also provide functionality to allow a business to manage their cards and be able to have all of their data organized into spend categories,” Jamison said. “Whether an expense was for a business flight or a meal, we can have all of that data sent back to a business’s ledgers to make sure that, at the end of the month, a business can close their books very quickly. Because anything that’s put on the card ultimately gets to the ledger almost instantly on the back end.”

Jamison said companies that use Extend’s platform are twice as likely to stay with their current credit card provider than companies not on Extend’s platform. He said Extend supports millions of virtual card transactions worth billions of dollars every year.

Strong partnerships can help businesses succeed. Jamison said relationships are particularly vital to the success of small businesses.

“Small business is about relationships,” Jamison said. “It’s all about who you’ve trusted for a long time. America is powered by small and middle-market businesses. That’s the heart of the engine room. I’m reminded every time I travel and end up somewhere I haven’t been before. I’ll see the name of a bank I’ve never heard of. How is that possible? It’s because small businesses have really deep relationships with regional banks.”

Extend’s services can help businesses increase their efficiency. Jamison said many small businesses don’t have large quantities of cash, and their working capital can be tight. Extend’s solutions can help small businesses manage their employees’ credit card use and create budgets to help company cardholders track their spend.

Bouvard said virtual cards can save businesses time should they become victims of fraud. He said one of Extend’s customers buys supplies from 200 companies worldwide, and, on average, the customer experiences card compromises twice per year. 

Bouvard said a card compromise may have previously required the customer to contact each of the 200 suppliers he works with over several weeks to resubmit purchase orders with his new credit card information. 

He said card compromises cause delays in business operations that, when coupled with supply chain disruptions, can be disastrous to a company. But, with virtual cards, businesses can manage card compromises without delaying orders placed with other vendors, he said.

“When a virtual card is compromised, a business can simply cancel it without impacting its other card purchases,” Bouvard said. “It takes maybe half an hour to change a compromised virtual card. It’s a minimal amount of work, and there’s no disruption in the overall supply chain. Visibility is great, and it makes things so simple. There’s no reason why every single business can’t use a service like this to better their operations.”

Virtual cards can be a transformational tool for businesses of all sizes. Jamison said companies with numerous suppliers or locations can benefit from virtual cards. He said franchises, including restaurants and construction companies, appreciate the oversight virtual cards offer.

Jamison said some companies offer a virtual card to individuals interviewing for an employment opportunity with them. He said companies provide virtual cards to job candidates to pay for the expenses associated with traveling to an on-site interview. 

Jamison said some businesses issue virtual cards to interns and seasonal employees to offer them a convenient way to pay for business expenses during their temporary employment.

“The flexibility of a virtual card is mind-blowing,” Jamison said. “It can be used by consumers on the street, but it can also be used by people in massive organizations. The idea of being able to provide people with a credit card number so they can make purchases in a number of places around the world — it creates instant trust. It’s quite incredible. I think people underplay the power of the card networks and what they’ve created.”

Bouvard said Extend’s customer base is broad because many businesses benefit from virtual cards. He said Extend’s clientele includes professional sports teams, retail companies, insurance agencies, technology firms, higher education institutions, and companies operating in the aerospace industry.

“Our clients are everywhere,” Bouvard said. “We have a good sense of who our customers are. There really is no limit to the types of businesses that can benefit from our solutions.”

Jamison said virtual credit cards are versatile, and customers value their accessibility.

“With virtual cards, it isn’t a case where I need to apply for a card first and then be underwritten by a bank,” Jamison said. “Essentially, you get the card and have everything you need, with instant access. The ubiquity of the cards, married with their accessibility, is a very powerful feature for people. They can get their card in five minutes and start accessing its benefits. We’ve removed the friction from the process.”

Extend offers resources to help new customers onboard to its platform. Bouvard said people may prefer to work with their banks during onboarding, but most customers can self-onboard.

Extend connects to a cardholder’s bank during onboarding. Bouvard said many of Extend’s customers are up and running minutes after beginning onboarding and can distribute virtual credit cards to their employees as necessary.

“I think a big part of the reason for our success is that it’s so fast for people to onboard with us,” Bouvard said.

Extend hosts a blog on its website that offers insights into how businesses can maximize their use of virtual credit cards. The blog includes posts about the security of virtual cards and how to prevent misuse of company cards.

Bouvard said a business owner’s time is precious, and they shouldn’t spend it managing processes that take them away from focusing on their company’s mission. 

“Everyone’s time is limited, and we all want to spend our time the best way we can,” Bouvard said. “No one wants to be dealing with unnecessary headaches. Business owners want to focus on ideas that create value.”