What Upward does

Upward is a Seattle-based fintech infrastructure platform that enables businesses to launch embedded financial products without building underlying payment systems from scratch. The platform serves financial services businesses seeking to deploy credit-building tools, branded payment cards, and rental payment solutions under their own brands. Upward operates a horizontal B2B model, providing white-label fintech-as-a-service capabilities to partner businesses that want to offer financial products to their end customers without standing up core banking, card issuance, or payment processing infrastructure in-house.\n\nThe platform's core product suite includes Credit Builder Tools, designed to help consumers improve credit scores through responsible financial behavior tracking and reporting; White-Label Cards, which allow partners to issue branded payment cards customized to their brand; and Rental Payments, a payment processing solution that currently handles over $10 million in monthly transaction volume. A strategic partnership with Mastercard, announced in November 2025, accelerates customer deployment of Mastercard-branded card programs through Upward's infrastructure. The underlying core technology is not publicly specified in available sources, and the company does not disclose a public API or SDK. The Mastercard relationship is the only documented integration in the available data.\n\nUpward is venture-backed and privately held. In November 2025, the company raised an $8 million Series Seed-plus funding round co-led by Dundee Venture Capital and Breakwater Ventures Fund, with participation from multiple additional investors. The stated use of funds is to accelerate fintech infrastructure development and expand market adoption. The company operates in North America, primarily in the United States, and has not publicly disclosed its pricing model, revenue mechanics, or unit economics.

Name

Upward

Legal name

Upward

Website

https://moveupward.city

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Upward is a Seattle-based B2B fintech infrastructure platform that enables financial services businesses to launch embedded products including credit builder tools, white-label Mastercard-branded cards, and rental payment solutions, currently processing over $10 million in monthly payments.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Fintech Infrastructure

NAICS

Credit Card Issuing (522210), Credit Card Issuing (52221), Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (522320)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Embedded Card Issuing & Card-as-a-Service (FSAGALAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Card Issuing Platforms (Issuer Processing) (FSAGABAD)

Keywords

• Fintech infrastructure
• Embedded finance
• White-label cards
• Credit builder tools
• Rental payments

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Core offering

Upward is a fintech infrastructure platform that enables businesses to launch embedded financial products, including credit builder tools, white-label (branded) payment cards, and rental payment processing. Through a strategic partnership with Mastercard, Upward helps partners stand up Mastercard-branded card programs rapidly without building the underlying infrastructure themselves, and processes over $10 million in monthly payments.

Product overview

Upward is a fintech infrastructure platform provider offering a suite of financial products including Credit Builder Tools, White-Label Cards, and Rental Payments. The platform processes over $10 million in monthly payments and enables businesses to launch Mastercard-branded card programs through its strategic partnership with Mastercard.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Credit Builder Tools

Quantifiable outcome

• Processes over $10 million in monthly payments

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• MastercardcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 November 2025Upward formed a strategic partnership with Mastercard to enable its customers to launch Mastercard-branded card programs more quickly. This partnership supports customers in launching branded card programs efficiently through Upward's fintech infrastructure platform.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Marqeta: Public card-issuing platform that provides APIs and infrastructure for businesses to launch and manage branded card programs — the most direct comparable to Upward's white-label card issuing offering.
• Stripe Issuing: Embedded card-issuing product from Stripe that lets platforms and businesses create and manage branded virtual and physical cards. Competes head-to-head with Upward's white-label card infrastructure.
• Lithic: Card-issuing infrastructure provider focused on developer-friendly APIs for launching card programs; directly comparable to Upward's white-label and embedded card business.
• Unit: Banking-as-a-service platform offering embedded checking, savings, lending, and card issuance for software companies — competing with Upward's embedded finance infrastructure.
• Synctera: Embedded banking and card platform that pairs fintechs with sponsor banks and provides compliance infrastructure. Comparable to Upward as a fintech infrastructure and card-issuing enabler.
• Treasury Prime: Embedded banking and card-issuing infrastructure provider connecting fintechs to bank partners via APIs. Directly comparable to Upward's fintech infrastructure positioning.

Emerging players

• Self (formerly Self Lender): Consumer credit-builder fintech offering credit-builder loans and now secured cards; overlaps directly with Upward's credit builder tools product line.
• Bilt Rewards: Tenant payments and rewards platform that processes rent via card and offers co-branded card programs; intersects with Upward's rental payments and white-label card offerings.

Broad incumbents

• Plaid: Broad fintech infrastructure incumbent providing account connectivity, identity, and payments infrastructure used by many fintechs; thematically adjacent to Upward's fintech infrastructure thesis.
• Galileo Financial Technologies: Large, established payments and card-issuing platform owned by SoFi, offering broad fintech infrastructure including card programs; serves a wider portfolio but competes in the same embedded card-issuing space as Upward.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments31 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Upward