Bringing Better Software to Banks and Businesses Everywhere

Extend is on a mission to bring better finance tools to banks and the businesses they serve—and Mastercard is helping accelerate that vision. 

Businesses today expect more from their company cards than a way to pay. When it comes to running their financial operation, a small or mid-sized business can easily end up juggling too many platforms across banking, accounting, payroll, bill pay, and expenses—and owners report spending about 20 hours a week on accounting tasks. Every tool added to the stack means another login, another data silo, and another manual handoff. What businesses want is fewer tools that do more.

We saw this early. When we started Extend, virtual cards were quickly proving how much more a business payment could do: beyond control and security, every card carried data that could automate approvals, reporting, and reconciliation. We saw the wave of neo-issuers and cloud-based processors with their rip-and-replace mentality around financial infrastructure—but their software-first approach and new infrastructure fueled a new generation of financial technology development. The best rose to the top and proved what a better experience could look like for businesses. Now traditional banks are working out how to deliver that same experience to the customers they already serve.

Banks have the relationships. Now they need the software.

Banks start with an advantage that's hard to compete with. Large banks have historically served about 85% of the small business card market, and businesses trust them with their deposits, their credit, their treasury solution expertise, and ultimately, their business.

But the card itself is becoming a commodity. Issuing cards and adding program benefits is no longer enough to set a program apart. As the Nilson Report noted last December, commercial card issuers have been losing business to software-first providers. Businesses aren't leaving for a better card—they're leaving for better tools.

That puts banks in a race. To compete for, win, and keep business customers, they need to deliver a modern software experience on top of the card programs they already run, and they need it now.

Extend and Mastercard are delivering it.

That's the gap our partnership with Mastercard closes. Mastercard has selected Extend as one of its financial operations platform partners that will bring modern spend and expense management to issuing banks and their existing commercial card programs across the US and Canada. 

For banks, it's an out-of-the-box, software-first experience for the card programs they already offer. For businesses, it means world-class software from the bank they already work with: instant access with the cards they already have, virtual cards, automated month-end reconciliation, AI agents, and real-time visibility into team and vendor spend—all in one place.

"Mastercard is steadfast in its commitment to small and mid-sized businesses and its decision to bring Extend to issuers is an exciting moment for our company—and for the industry. No business should have to choose between a trusted bank and better operational solutions." — Andrew Jamison, CEO and Co-Founder, Extend

"We work closely with our issuing banks to understand and serve the needs of business customers. The message is simple: they want tools that make their job easier, and Extend does just that." — Ginger Siegel, Head of North America Small and Mid Market Business, Mastercard

When the software comes with the bank, how will neo-issuers compete?

For years, modern spend and expense management solutions came with one big condition: switch your card, and often your trusted bank, to get it. That’s no longer an issue. With Mastercard bringing Extend to issuers across its network, the best software is no longer something businesses have to leave their bank to find—and that changes the game. 

When the experience that once required switching to a neo-bank comes standard with the bank they already trust, businesses can choose a financial partner for the reasons that have always mattered: trust, credit, service, and a relationship that grows with them.