🚨 Situational awareness: Amazon ended its spat with Visa, striking a global deal and ending surcharges it imposed on Visa credit card purchases in Singapore and Australia.
1 big thing: Founders Fund funds Found
Banking and corporate cards have become big business for startups and small businesses — with companies like Ramp, Brex, and Airbase all raising gobs of cash — but few (good) options exist for solopreneurs and businesses of one.
Driving the news: Found, a startup offering "full-stack" financial services for self-employed workers, raised $60 million in Series B funding led by Founders Fund, the company exclusively tells Ryan.
- About 60 million Americans are self-employed, and that group is predicted to make up the majority of U.S. workers by 2027.
- They shell out a ton for accountants, bookkeepers, and lawyers.
How it works: Found provides a business bank account and debit card that helps freelancers and contractors keep track of their payments, invoices, expenses, and taxes all in one place.
- Users have payments sent to their Found bank account, which calculates tax withholdings and sets the correct amount aside. They then use the Found debit card to pay for expenses, which are automatically deducted when applicable.
- Found users also can create invoices through its mobile or desktop apps and have payments sent directly to their accounts.
- The underlying software is free, with Found making money off interchange fees from debit card transactions.
Between the lines: Found founder (*ahem*) and CEO Lauren Myrick was an accountant before joining Square and becoming its second product manager, working on point-of-sale and SaaS offerings.
- That's where she met Keith Rabois, now a Founders Fund partner and a new member of Found's board.
- Rabois called Myrick "one of the most instrumental people" in driving Square's success, and says he would have invested in the Series A if the company hadn't chosen to work with Sequoia Capital.
- Myrick says she's "really excited to work with Keith again. I've always been impressed with the type of business builder he is, and how he can come in and really change the trajectory of a startup with his insights."
Of note: In addition to Founders Fund, Sequoia and Lightspeed also participated in the round.
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to note that Myrick joined Found as it second product manager, not its second project manager.
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