Flex, a San Francisco-based AI startup, has secured $60 million in fresh capital in a funding round led by Portage Ventures, pushing its valuation to roughly $500 million. The investment brings its total equity raised to $105 million.
The newly secured capital will be deployed across product innovation and hiring, with the company planning to expand its current 80-member team.
Filling the gap in economy
Traditional fintech tools don’t scale well for them, while regional banks struggle to offer fast and modern financial experiences. Flex wants to bridge that divide.
Founded by Zaid Rahman, Flex works with the mission to become the all-in-one financial hub for business owners who are too large for small-business products yet too small to attract private banking attention.
Rather than building narrowly focused finance functions, the startup combines private credit, business banking, treasury functions, personal finance management and payment solutions into a unified platform. With this model, business owners don’t need to juggle multiple vendors; everything is designed to operate in one ecosystem.
It is carving out a category that rarely gets the spotlight, a profitable mid-sized business earning between $2 million and $100 million annually. These companies form a huge segment of the economy but are often underserved.
Increased payment volumes
A major challenge in modern financial technology is whether automation can work reliably in real-world scenarios. Earlier this year, an MIT study found that just 5% of new tech pilots eventually scale into long-term production due to accuracy issues and low adoption.
Flex is attempting to beat those odds by keeping expert supervision at the centre of its product stack. Every automation-based output is reviewed by financial specialists to reduce errors and build confidence among users.
The strategy is paying off. Growing adoption of the company’s business credit products has pushed payment volumes to $3 billion in the last year, tripling in just 12 months. For mid-sized enterprises accustomed to slow turnaround from banks, the rapid funding access and unified management tools offer a compelling alternative.
New premium card and expansion plans
Flex now plans to push deeper into the personal finance side of the business owner ecosystem. It is preparing to launch Flex Elite, an invite-only consumer card positioned as a competitor to the ultra-exclusive Amex Centurion. Aimed at high-net-worth clients, this move could help Flex broaden its influence beyond business payments and strengthen loyalty among top-tier users.
As competition heats up in business finance, Flex is betting that a unified, high-trust platform can become the default operating layer for ambitious mid-sized companies.