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§ Private Profile · San Francisco, CA, USA
Plastiq is a technology company.
Plastiq provides a payment automation platform, enabling businesses and consumers to use credit cards for nearly any expense, including those typically requiring checks, wires, or ACH. The platform converts credit card payments into vendor-accepted methods like wires, ACH, or mailed checks, streamlining B2B payments and automating accounts payable.
Eliot Buchanan and Daniel Choi founded Plastiq in 2012. Their insight, developed at Harvard University, addressed the challenge of using credit cards for essential, non-card-friendly payments. They engineered a system to transform credit card transactions into accepted forms, solving a key flexibility gap.
Plastiq serves small to mid-size businesses, entrepreneurs, and consumers seeking payment control. The company's vision focuses on empowering these users with convenient, secure, flexible payment options. By bridging credit card utility with traditional requirements, Plastiq aims to deliver enhanced liquidity and operational efficiency.
Plastiq has raised $144.3M across 9 funding rounds.
Plastiq has raised $144.3M in total across 9 funding rounds.
# Plastiq: High-Level Overview
Plastiq is a B2B payments platform that enables businesses to pay suppliers by credit card even when those suppliers don't accept card payments.[2] Founded in 2012, Plastiq transforms credit card transactions into invoice payments—wires, ACH transfers, or checks—while charging a flat fee (typically 2.85-2.9%) for the conversion.[2][3] The company serves small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) seeking to optimize working capital and cash flow management. By allowing businesses to earn credit card rewards on payments that traditionally wouldn't accept cards, Plastiq solves a fundamental friction point in B2B commerce: the inability to leverage credit for large supplier payments, tax obligations, and other business expenses.
Plastiq's growth has been substantial. Between 2020 and 2022, the company scaled from $35 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) to $75 million, with gross profit doubling from $6 million to $12 million.[2] By August 2022, Plastiq had 195,000 payers and over 200,000 suppliers across 50 countries and more than 20 currencies, with year-over-year card volume growth exceeding 66%.[2] The platform now operates as part of Priority Technology Holdings, the fourth-largest non-bank payments business in the United States, which acquired Plastiq and integrated it into a broader unified commerce platform serving over 800,000 customers.[1]
# Origin Story
Plastiq emerged in 2012 as a response to a structural gap in business payments. The company's flagship product, Plastiq Pay, pioneered the concept of buyer-initiated payments (BIP)—allowing businesses to use credit cards for supplier payments regardless of whether the vendor accepted cards.[3] This innovation addressed a real pain point: most large B2B transactions and big-ticket purchases occurred outside the credit card ecosystem, leaving businesses unable to capture rewards, manage cash flow strategically, or access working capital through their existing credit lines.
By 2020, Plastiq had gained significant traction, earning recognition on Forbes' Fintech 50 list for its groundbreaking approach to working capital optimization.[4] The company's co-founder and CEO, Eliot Buchanan, positioned Plastiq as a solution for SMBs seeking to "maximize profits and scale" by reimagining how they access and deploy working capital.[4] This early success attracted partnerships with major credit card providers (American Express, Discover, Mastercard, Visa, Brex, JCB) and business credit card platforms like Ramp and Brex, which embedded Plastiq's capabilities into their own offerings.[2][4]
# Core Differentiators
# Role in the Broader Tech Landscape
Plastiq operates at the intersection of three powerful trends: working capital optimization, embedded finance, and B2B payments modernization. As businesses face rising capital costs and tighter cash conversion cycles, the ability to defer payments while capturing credit card rewards becomes strategically valuable—particularly for SMBs with limited access to traditional financing.
The company's integration into Priority Technology Holdings signals a broader consolidation trend in payments infrastructure. Priority's acquisition of Plastiq reflects the industry's shift toward unified commerce platforms that combine payment acceptance, processing, and financing under one roof.[1][3] This positions Plastiq not as a standalone fintech but as a critical component of a larger payments ecosystem serving hundreds of thousands of customers.
Plastiq also exemplifies the embedded finance movement, where payment capabilities are woven into business management software, accounting platforms, and credit card products rather than existing as standalone applications.[2][3] This shift reduces friction and increases adoption by meeting businesses where they already work.
# Quick Take & Future Outlook
Plastiq's trajectory reflects a maturing B2B payments market where the winners are those who solve multiple problems simultaneously—not just processing payments, but optimizing cash flow, automating accounts payable, and providing access to working capital. Under Priority's ownership, the company is positioned to scale its B2B segment (historically underdeveloped relative to SMB payment acceptance) and deepen integrations with ERP systems and SaaS platforms.
The key question ahead is whether Plastiq can expand beyond its core use case of supplier payments into adjacent areas like tax payments, contractor disbursements, and international transactions—all of which face similar card acceptance friction. As businesses continue to prioritize cash flow management in a higher-interest-rate environment, Plastiq's value proposition only strengthens. The company's evolution from standalone fintech to embedded infrastructure within a larger payments platform suggests that its future influence will be measured not by direct customer awareness but by how deeply it becomes woven into the business payment workflows of hundreds of thousands of companies.
Plastiq has raised $144.3M across 9 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $75.0M Series D in March 2020.
Plastiq has raised $144.3M in total across 9 funding rounds.
Plastiq's investors include B Capital Group, 8VC, Abstract Ventures, Accel, Accomplice, Activant Capital, Alumni Ventures, American Express Ventures, Anderson Angels, Andreessen Horowitz, Angular Ventures, Archetype.