Spade
Spade is a data and AI platform that enriches raw payment transactions into structured, verified merchant records in real time. It serves fintechs, banks, and AI companies with a sub-50ms API and AI agents for risk, attribution, and customer experience.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2021
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Spade does
Spade is a data and AI platform, founded in late 2021 and headquartered in New York, that transforms raw payment transaction data into structured, verified merchant records for financial institutions, fintechs, and AI companies. Its core technology is a Transaction Enrichment API that matches messy transaction strings — from card swipes, ACH transfers, wires, and aggregator sources — to a proprietary merchant database covering 99.9% of US and Canadian merchants with greater than 99% accuracy at under 50 milliseconds P99 latency. Rather than treating enrichment as a model-cleansing problem, Spade treats it as a search problem against a pre-built, continuously hydrated merchant graph, which serves as the foundation for the platform.
On top of this data layer, Spade has launched three production AI agents — Risk Agent (real-time authorization decisioning), Attribution Agent (automated rewards validation), and Experience Agent (verified merchant display across digital banking touchpoints) — evolving the product from a single enrichment API into a broader Payments Intelligence Platform supporting fraud prevention, rewards, analytics, and AI applications. Spade is SOC 2 Type II certified and processes 1.9 billion transactions per day for customers including PayPal, Cash App, Mercury, Bilt, Sardine, Coast, FIS, Citizens Bank, Monzo, Stripe Issuing, Corpay Fuelman, Cardless, Unit, and Navan.
Spade operates a sales-led, API-first go-to-market with usage-based pricing under enterprise contracts. The company has raised approximately $57 million across four disclosed funding rounds, most recently a $40 million Series B in March 2026 led by Oak HC/FT with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Flourish Ventures, Gradient, NAventures, and Y Combinator, reported alongside 470% year-over-year revenue growth. The team is lean (11–50 employees) and operates from a hybrid New York headquarters.
Spade firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Spade
- Legal name
- Spade Data, Inc.
- Website
- https://spade.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2021
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Spade is a data and AI platform that enriches raw payment transactions into structured, verified merchant records in real time. It serves fintechs, banks, and AI companies with a sub-50ms API and AI agents for risk, attribution, and customer experience.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Spade is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Spade business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Transaction Enrichment API: Spade charges for access to its transaction enrichment API and intelligence platform. Given the B2B SaaS nature, usage-based API pricing with volume tiers is the likely revenue model. The platform processes billions of transactions per day for customers. The Finance Lead job posting references 'usage-based or consumption pricing models' as relevant context, confirming a usage-based pricing structure.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Enterprise B2B pricing — not publicly listed |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels5 records
Spade product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Spade provides a real-time Transaction Enrichment API and AI agent platform that converts raw payment transaction data (card swipes, ACH transfers, wires, and aggregated data) into structured, verified merchant records with names, categories, geolocations, and logos. It serves banks, fintechs, payment processors, and AI companies with sub-50ms enrichment latency across multi-rail payment data, and offers AI agents that automate authorization, rewards attribution, fraud detection, and customer-facing transaction clarity workflows.
Product overview
Spade offers a unified data and AI platform for financial services, consisting of a core Transaction Enrichment API and a suite of AI Agent modules. The core API provides real-time transaction enrichment, matching raw payment data to a proprietary merchant database covering 99.9% of US and Canadian merchants. Built on this foundation are specialized AI agents—Risk Agent for autonomous authorization decisioning, Attribution Agent for automated rewards validation, and Experience Agent for customer-facing transaction clarity. The platform has evolved from a single enrichment API into a comprehensive Payments Intelligence Platform that enables workflows including fraud detection, behavioral segmentation, and analytics across $100B+ in annual payment volume.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Transaction Enrichment API Real-time API that transforms raw payment transaction data (card swipes, ACH transfers, wires, and aggregated data) into structured, verified merchant records, returning merchant name, category, geolocation coordinates, and logos in under 50ms P99 latency. Matches transactions to a proprietary merchant database covering 99.9% of US and Canadian merchants with over 99% accuracy. Sold to banks, fintechs, processors, and AI companies.
- Risk Agent Autonomous AI agent for real-time risk and authorization decisioning. Evaluates transactions against verified merchant and geolocation data, automates authorization scoring and routing, and continuously learns from outcomes across the Spade network. Reduces false declines and enables precise fraud prevention at authorization. Sold to banks, fintechs, and card issuers.
- Attribution Agent Automated rewards attribution agent that validates transactions against merchant partner lists and Spade's merchant graph in real time. Eliminates manual reconciliation between enriched transaction data and partner networks, enabling scalable rewards programs without operational overhead. Sold to fintech rewards programs and loyalty platforms.
- Experience Agent AI agent that automates delivery of verified merchant display assets (names, logos, descriptors) across digital banking touchpoints. Manages data delivery, updates, and consistency of merchant information to reduce customer disputes. Sold to banks, fintechs, and digital banking platforms.
- Payments Intelligence Platform Spade's full data and AI platform that unifies the Transaction Enrichment API with the Risk, Attribution, and Experience Agents to enable end-to-end workflows including real-time rewards attribution, push notification triggers, behavioral segmentation, loan targeting, fraud flagging, and analytics. Sold to financial institutions, fintechs, and ecosystem partners processing over $100B in payments annually.
Quantifiable outcome
- 99.9% merchant coverage in the US and Canada
- +9 more outcomes
Companies that use Spade
Customer profileNamed customers14 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Spade technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability7 records
Feature5 records
Spade partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- StripecoreStripe Issuing partnered with Spade to power real-time merchant intelligence for Stripe's issuing customers. Innovators using Stripe Issuing can leverage Spade's merchant data including logos, names, locations, and categories for enhanced transaction visibility.
- BiltcoreBilt partnered with Spade to enhance member experience and rewards offerings using enriched transaction data. Bilt's hyper-local rewards program covers 45,000+ local businesses and 5.5M+ members. Spade's Attribution Agent automates validation of transactions against Bilt's partner lists in real time.
- MercurycoreMercury uses Spade's transaction enrichment as the foundation for its corporate card program, accounting automation, spend controls, and fraud prevention. Mercury serves over 200,000 customers including one in three U.S. startups, with $650M in annualized revenue. Spade's data enables auto-categorization, merchant locking, and brand-level spend visibility.
- Corpay (Fuelman)coreCorpay's Fuelman fleet expense management solution uses Spade's merchant intelligence to power accurate resettlement across 2.5M+ drivers. Spade ingests Fuelman's fuel stop network and applies real-time enrichment and matching to reduce billing errors and manual reconciliation.
- SardinecoreSardine integrated Spade's merchant intelligence into its fraud and risk platform, using verified merchant identity across rules engines and machine learning models to improve real-time fraud decisions and reduce false positives.
- CoastcoreCoast integrated Spade's real-time enrichment and geolocation data into its fleet card authorization flow, enabling proximity-based authorization and merchant-locked card controls for fleet spend management.
- PayPalcorePayPal uses Spade's transaction intelligence to reduce customer confusion and disputes by showing clear, verified merchant names instead of inconsistent descriptors across tens of millions of daily transactions.
- Citizens BankcoreCitizens Bank uses Spade for transaction enrichment across credit cards, deposits, ACH, and other payment rails, ensuring consistent transaction descriptions and reliable data for analytics and personalization across its multi-product customer base.
- MonzocoreMonzo uses Spade's accurate merchant data to power its U.S. product launch — enabling customers to earn cashback at specific merchants rather than broad reward categories. Spade's data makes hyper-granular, merchant-specific rewards possible.
- FIScoreFIS positioned Spade as essential long-term infrastructure supporting authorization, attribution, analytics, and AI-driven initiatives. As one of the largest fintech providers globally processing trillions in annual transactions, FIS uses Spade as a foundational data layer across its ecosystem.
- CardlesscoreCardless uses Spade's merchant intelligence to power co-branded credit card programs for partners including Coinbase and Bilt. Spade's speed, accuracy, and responsiveness enabled fast implementation and seamless scaling as Cardless grew its card programs.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights7 records
Spade competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- MX Technologies: MX provides transaction data enhancement, categorization, and financial insights APIs to banks and fintechs. Direct competitor in the transaction enrichment and money management space, with overlap on merchant intelligence and bank distribution.
- Yodlee (Envestnet): Yodlee is a long-established transaction data enrichment and account aggregation platform serving banks and fintechs. Direct competitor in merchant enrichment and categorization, with broader account aggregation scope.
- Plaid: Plaid is the leading financial data connectivity and enrichment platform, providing transaction categorization, merchant identification, and account data APIs to fintechs and banks. Directly comparable to Spade on enrichment, merchant intelligence, and developer-first B2B SaaS distribution to financial institutions.
- Sift: Sift is a fraud detection and risk decisioning platform using machine learning on transaction signals. Comparable to Spade's Risk Agent use case, with overlapping customers (e.g., fintechs and digital banks) and similar real-time decisioning orientation.
- Akoya: Akoya is a financial data-sharing network providing secure access to consumer-permissioned bank transaction data. Comparable to Spade as financial data infrastructure for institutions and fintechs, though Akoya focuses on data access permissioning rather than enrichment.
- Personetics: Personetics provides AI-driven transaction categorization, behavioral segmentation, and personalized insights for banks. Direct overlap with Spade's enrichment plus analytics layer and bank-focused distribution.
- Finicity (Mastercard): Finicity, now part of Mastercard, provides financial data APIs including transaction enrichment and cash flow analytics. Direct peer in transaction data intelligence for banks and fintechs, with Mastercard providing strong distribution.
Broad incumbents
- Ekata (TransUnion): Ekata, owned by TransUnion, provides identity verification and merchant intelligence for fraud prevention and risk decisions. Comparable on merchant data, but TransUnion's broader identity data portfolio makes it a broader incumbent in the same risk/auth space.
- Marqeta: Marqeta is a card issuing and payments processing platform that could choose to build or embed transaction enrichment natively. Overlaps with Spade's issuing-side customers (Stripe Issuing, Cardless) and represents both a partner and a potential competitive threat at the platform layer.
Emerging players
- Lithic: Lithic is a card issuing API platform serving fintechs with embedded transaction data capabilities. Comparable to Spade on the issuing/customer overlap and developer-first API distribution, though Lithic is upstream as an issuer rather than a downstream enrichment layer.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Spade social profiles
Digital presenceSpade compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Spade financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Spade leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
Spade funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds4 records
Investors10 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Spade M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Spade
What does Spade do?
Spade provides a real-time Transaction Enrichment API and AI agent platform that converts raw payment transaction data (card swipes, ACH transfers, wires, and aggregated data) into structured, verified merchant records with names, categories, geolocations, and logos. It serves banks, fintechs, payment processors, and AI companies with sub-50ms enrichment latency across multi-rail payment data, and offers AI agents that automate authorization, rewards attribution, fraud detection, and customer-facing transaction clarity workflows.
Is Spade a public or private company?
Spade is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Spade founded?
Spade was founded in 2021. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Spade based?
Spade is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does Spade make money?
One revenue line is on record: transaction Enrichment API.
Who are Spade's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are MX Technologies, Yodlee (Envestnet), Plaid, Sift, Akoya, Personetics and Finicity (Mastercard). Broad incumbents are Ekata (TransUnion) and Marqeta. Lithic is listed as an emerging player.
Does Spade have an API?
Yes. Spade provides a real-time transaction enrichment API that transforms messy payment data into structured, verified merchant records. The API processes card transactions, ACH transfers, wires, and aggregated data, returning merchant identity, category, location, and logos in under 50ms P99 latency. The API supports enrichment use cases including risk and authorization decisions, rewards attribution, analytics, fraud detection, and AI applications. Customers connect via REST API for real-time enrichment and batch processing workflows. Developer documentation is at docs.spade.com.