Co-Brand Card Platform Imprint Raises $130M at a $1.9B Valuation as AI Reshapes Commerce

When AI shopping assistants find, compare and pay for products, brands risk losing their direct relationship with customers. McKinsey projects that agentic commerce could mediate up to $1 trillion in U.S. retail revenue by 2030. Imprint, which builds co-branded credit cards so brands can stay part of everyday spending, has raised $130 million.

Co-branded cards, built from the ground up

Imprint is a payments, loyalty and customer intelligence platform that helps brands make every transaction more valuable. Founded in 2020 and based in New York, it builds co-branded credit cards with brands and owns its stack across origination, risk, servicing and rewards. That gives brands control of their financial products and room to tailor rewards, the company says.

Since the start of the year it has launched programs with Albertsons Companies, Fanatics, Kroger and Shell, with the Fanatics card debuting this week. Booking.com is also a customer. Imprint reports more than two million members and partners whose annual U.S. consumer spending exceeds $500 billion. Total cardholder spending across its partners more than doubled between 2025 and 2026, and the share of spending on Imprint cards at partner checkouts tripled in a year. It also added $1.5 billion in warehouse capacity and priced its second AAA-rated asset-backed securitization, with demand nearly five times the offering size. These figures come from the company.

For the AI era, Imprint released a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets AI agents securely reach members’ rewards, virtual cards and transaction history, along with tools for members to review and authorize agent-initiated purchases. Imprint Access, launching today, gives customers who are new to credit or rebuilding it, backed by a refundable deposit, the same ongoing rewards as a brand’s unsecured card, with a path to upgrade. The Federal Reserve estimates 32 million Americans have little or no credit history.

A law graduate from Dublin who came to cards through WeWork

Founder and CEO Daragh Murphy is Irish, studied law at University College Dublin and was a vice president of operations and strategy at WeWork, according to Irish media. He founded Imprint in 2020 with Gaurav Ahuja and Michael Pechman. Ahuja, a partner at Thrive Capital, is reported to have helped incubate the company and to serve as chairman. Imprint raised a $75 million Series C at a $600 million valuation in October 2024, and press reports put its December 2025 Series D at $150 million and a $1.2 billion valuation.

Valuation up from $1.2B

Imprint said it raised $130 million at a valuation of about $1.9 billion. Existing investor Khosla Ventures led. Existing investors Hedosophia, Ribbit Capital, Spice and Thrive Capital took part, and Positive Sum joined as a new investor. The money will fund new payment options and AI capabilities, so brands can recognize and reward customers however they choose to pay. The release did not name the round.

CEO Murphy said brands that invest in understanding each customer and building individual relationships will win as every digital touchpoint becomes personalized. Patrick O’Shaughnessy, CEO and partner at Positive Sum, said AI makes every option easier to compare, so earning a customer’s preference matters more, and that the team’s full-stack technology and marquee partners gave the firm conviction. Fanatics CFO Glenn Schiffman said Imprint’s technology made it possible to design a card around fans.

Competitors

In U.S. rewards cards, Bilt Rewards is the most visible rival. It started as a card that turns rent into points and raised $250 million in July 2025 at a $10.75 billion valuation, led by General Catalyst and GID. It was reported to be ending its relationship with Wells Fargo and moving its cards to Cardless. No new round since 2026 could be confirmed.

Large issuers that have long run retailer co-brand programs, such as Synchrony and Bread Financial, compete for the same brands. Imprint pitches its own technology stack as the edge in designing products. Among companies we have covered, Ramp approaches cards through corporate spend management and raised $1.85 billion at a $60 billion valuation last month.