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Jul 2, 2021 - Economy & Business

Karat, a credit card for creators, raises $26 million

Dan Primack
A hand hold money shaped into butterflies.

Illustration: Rae Cook/Axios

Karat Financial, a Palo Alto-based provider of corporate credit cards for digital creators, raised $26 million in Series A funding. Union Square Ventures led, and was joined by GGV Capital and SignalFire.

Why it matters: This reflects how traditional financial institutions are failing to keep pace with new labor trends and new industries, ceding some of the future to upstart competition.

The bottom line: "Karat's ultimate ambition isn't to give creators a line of credit. It started out with the credit card to prove their concept, but in the long term, it hopes to create a financial infrastructure for creators," TechCrunch's Amanda Silberling writes.

  • "That means helping them launch merchandise lines, incorporate their business, get a mortgage, take out business loans and file their taxes."
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