Coast Raises $27.5 Million and Collaborates with Visa to Transform Financial Services for Fleet Operators

NEW YORK, Feb. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Coast, which offers a simple and smart way for companies to control fuel and fleet spending, today announced it has raised $27.5 million in Series A financing led by Accel and Insight Partners. The round includes participation from existing investors Avid Ventures, Better Tomorrow Ventures, and BoxGroup, as well as a number of prominent angels. The company is backed by founders of Affirm, Convoy, Flexport, Marqeta, Plaid, Socure, and others. Amit Kumar from Accel will be joining Coast's Board of Directors, and Rebecca Liu-Doyle from Insight will join the Board as an observer. The company also announced its collaboration with Visa to launch a Visa Fleet card program, enabling Coast Visa Fleet cardholders to make payments at North American merchants wherever Visa is accepted.

Coast will use the new funding to expand the platform's capabilities and offer a wider range of financial products to fleet operators. This will include integrations into accounting tools for ease of managing finances and reconciliation, and telematics and fleet management software to provide real-time data on vehicle status and location, so companies can have actionable spending insights that can connect their transaction data with information about their vehicles in the real world. The company will also continue to scale its team, and is actively hiring for positions across engineering, product, sales, marketing, and customer service.

Businesses that operate fleets of vehicles need to provide their drivers with a way to pay for expenses while out on the road, but ensuring those payment methods are used for authorized purchases can be a major headache that can lead to misused funds and a drag on the company's bottom line. As a result, fleet operators have turned to outdated, legacy fleet cards that are disconnected from their needs, fail to deliver improved technology, and charge hidden fees. Most cards also require a driver to refuel at certain gas stations, and do not allow the operator to customize spending controls or see transactions in real-time.

"Coast's vision is to be the financial platform for the future of transportation, starting with fleet and fuel payments," said Daniel Simon, founder and CEO of Coast. "Fleet operators deserve quality, low-cost financial services like every other segment that's been reimagined by fintech. We are proud to introduce a simple, flexible fleet payments solution through our collaboration with Visa. Our partnership with Accel and Insight gives us the resources to deliver a broader suite of financial offerings to our fleet customers, so fleet operators can focus on growing their businesses faster and more efficiently."

Coast's platform allows fleet managers to set spend limits, issue cards, and authorize payments in seconds. Operators can see where and when their vehicles are being used, get alerts about suspicious transactions, and can freeze a card in one click on the Coast dashboard. Coast can be used anywhere Visa is accepted, and every transaction is approved almost instantly and can be seen in the dashboard, eliminating the need for drivers to spend their downtime submitting expense reports or seeking reimbursement.

"We're thrilled to have Coast as a partner to bring Visa Fleet cards to more businesses," said Veronica Fernandez, SVP, North America Head, Visa Business Solutions. "Through this collaboration, we're transforming where, when, and how fleet businesses manage their card programs and enabling their employees to pay for fuel and other associated costs on the road."

"Fleets are a disproportionately large segment of all domestic B2B spend and yet have been underserved by modern financial products and services," said Amit Kumar, Partner at Accel and a member of Coast's Board of Directors. "Coast's fintech pedigree and sophistication have allowed them to adapt the corporate card innovation we're seeing in other market segments for fleet operators, and we couldn't be more excited to support Daniel and the team."

"What Daniel and his world-class team at Coast have built is a game-changing fintech product for a market that is ripe for disruption," said Rebecca Liu-Doyle, Managing Director at Insight Partners. "The positive impact that Coast's innovative platform will have on drivers, fleet managers and their businesses cannot be overstated. We at Insight couldn't be more excited to partner with the Coast team on this exciting next step in their growth journey."

Coast was founded in 2020 by Simon. Simon previously co-founded consumer finance startup Bread, which was sold to Alliance Data Systems for over $500 million in 2020.

About Coast
Coast is re-imagining the trillion-dollar US B2B card payments infrastructure, with a focus on the country's 500,000 commercial fleets, 40 million commercial vehicles, and many million commercial drivers. Drivers, fleets, and the merchants that serve them all increasingly demand modern digital payments experiences and affordable and transparent financial services products. Coast's mission is to deliver them at a transformational scale and to improve working lives in one of the country's biggest industry sectors. Coast is founded and led by Daniel Simon, who previously co-founded digital payments platform Bread (breadpayments.com), which was acquired by Alliance Data Systems for over $500 million in 2020. For more information, visit coastpay.com.

About Accel
Accel is a leading venture capital firm that invests in people and their companies from the earliest days through all phases of private company growth. Atlassian, Braintree, Cloudera, CrowdStrike, DJI, Dropbox, Dropcam, Etsy, Facebook, Flipkart, FreshWorks, Jet, Qualtrics, Slack, Spotify, Supercell, UiPath and Vox Media are among the companies the firm has backed over the past 35 years. For more, visit www.accel.com or www.twitter.com/accel.

About Insight Partners
Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight Partners has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and has raised through a series of funds more than $30 billion in capital commitments. Insight's mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. Across its people and its portfolio, Insight encourages a culture around a belief that ScaleUp companies and growth create opportunity for all. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.