Bank Index
Emburse
Fintech · Los Angeles, United States
Emburse is a Los Angeles software company that sells travel and expense management, accounts payable automation and corporate card controls to businesses. It was assembled by private equity firm K1 Investment Management out of Certify, Chrome River, Abacus and other expense tools, and reports around 18,000 customers, 12 million users and USD 65 billion of spend running through the platform each year. It is not a bank and holds no payments licence of its own: Emburse Cards are Mastercards issued by Celtic Bank, and the platform also plugs into a company's existing American Express, Visa or Mastercard programme. Most of its revenue is software subscriptions, with interchange as a smaller second line.
- Legal name
- Emburse, Inc.
- Regulated by
- None directly: Emburse holds no banking or e-money authorisation. Emburse Cards are issued by Celtic Bank, a Utah-chartered industrial bank and FDIC member
- Licence confirmed
- yes, on a regulator's own list
- Established
- 2020
- Website
- www.emburse.com
Scores, 0 to 10
7.0Customer satisfaction
The Trustpilot page for emburse.com is unclaimed and holds no reviews at all. The usable sample is the App Store, where Emburse Professional is rated 4.6 out of 5 from 12,624 ratings. · source
6.0Fast digital onboarding
Emburse Spend says most teams are implemented in about a week, and card registration is online for companies incorporated in the US, UK or EU. · source
6.0Business cards (Visa, Mastercard)
Virtual and physical Mastercards issued by Celtic Bank with per-card spend limits, merchant and category restrictions and expiry dates, plus feeds from existing Amex, Visa and Mastercard programmes; but only for companies incorporated in the US, UK or EU. · source
5.0Lowest fees
Emburse Spend starts at USD 8 per user per month; there is no account fee because there is no account, but the enterprise products are quoted only on request. · source
4.5United States
Emburse Cards are Mastercards issued by Celtic Bank, a Utah-chartered industrial bank and FDIC member, but Emburse itself holds no charter and provides no ACH or Fedwire account. · source
4.0Online businesses: e-commerce and SaaS
The product manages money a company spends, not money it collects: there is no acquiring, no marketplace payout and no multi-currency collection account. Accounting sync, real-time card feeds and virtual cards for cloud spend suit a software company's outgoings, but there is no USD or EUR receiving account and no revenue-based financing. · source
4.0Startups & VC-backed companies
Emburse Spend is aimed at small and growing businesses with lean finance teams from USD 8 per user per month, but it is expense software, not a bank account, and there is no venture debt or founder programme. · source
4.0Financial strength & stability
Owned by K1 Investment Management, described as profitable with about 900 employees and roughly USD 90 billion of spend processed a year, but it publishes no accounts and carries no credit rating. · source
3.5Europe (EU, EEA, Switzerland)
Companies incorporated in the European Union can register for Emburse Cards and the software is sold across Europe, but Emburse holds no EU payments or e-money authorisation and offers no euro account. · source
3.5United Kingdom
UK-incorporated companies can register for the card programme, but Emburse is not on the FCA register in its own right and there is no UK business current account. · source
3.5Cross-border payments, FX and multi-currency accounts
Emburse publishes no currency list, no FX margin and no local payout rails; it says only that international transaction fees apply under the card programme agreement. Global expense, payables and spend analytics across roughly 20,000 customers in 120 countries, but no multi-currency accounts, no cash pooling and no hedging. · source
3.0Crypto-friendly bank
Emburse publishes no policy on crypto exchanges, brokers or miners; the public product pages cover expense, travel, payables and card controls only. · source
3.0Fintech companies that need a partner bank
Emburse supplies a custom-branded expense product to Mastercard-issuing financial institutions, but it offers no safeguarding accounts, no correspondent banking and no rail access to payment firms. · source
3.0High-risk verticals (iGaming, cannabis, adult, forex)
Emburse publishes no acceptable use or prohibited business policy covering gambling, cannabis, adult or forex clients; the card programme agreement is not public. · source
2.5Foreign-owned & non-resident companies
The card FAQ requires the company to be incorporated in the US, UK or EU and the primary account owner to be resident in that same country, and it excludes residents of US territories. · source
2.0Best interest on business balances
Emburse holds no deposits and publishes no yield, sweep or treasury product; balances sit with the company's own bank, not with Emburse. · source
2.0Stablecoins (USDC, USDT and others)
In March 2026 Emburse said stablecoin-based funding and settlement would come to Emburse Pay in a phased rollout from Q2 2026, but its newsroom through 1 September 2026 announces no launch, so no business can use it yet. · source
1.5Trade, manufacturing & import-export
No letters of credit, guarantees, documentary collections or supply chain finance; the payables product automates invoices and reimbursements only. · source
1.5On-ramp: buy crypto with fiat
A company cannot buy crypto through Emburse, and its card terms say nothing either way about paying exchanges; this is a limit of a spend platform rather than a stated ban, so evidence is thin. · source
1.5Off-ramp: crypto to fiat in a business account
Emburse moves money out to vendors and employees and has no account that receives crypto sale proceeds, so a business has no way to cash out crypto here, checked September 2026. · source
1.0Crypto wallet and custody for a business
Emburse sells expense, travel, invoice and card software with cards issued by Celtic Bank, and none of its products holds crypto for a company, checked on its product pages and newsroom in September 2026. · source
1.0Accept crypto payments
Emburse Pay handles outbound vendor and employee payments only; it does no merchant acquiring and offers no crypto acceptance, checked September 2026. · source
1.0Bitcoin
No bitcoin buying, holding or transfer is offered on any Emburse product page or in its 2026 newsroom, checked September 2026. · source
1.0Ethereum
No ether or token service appears on any Emburse product page or in its 2026 newsroom, checked September 2026. · source
Sources
- Emburse Cards FAQ (card issuer and eligibility)
- Emburse Spend product page and pricing
- Emburse about page (customers, users, spend processed)
- Payments Dive: private equity backed Emburse chases large customers
- Emburse Professional on the App Store
- Trustpilot: emburse.com (unclaimed, no reviews)
- Emburse and Mastercard partnership announcement
Built on public information and the BankStore team's own aggregated experience; no confidential client or partner data. Bank Index and BankStore are not banks. This is information, not financial advice.