X1 Card, the “smartest” credit card “ever made,” recently announced $25 million in Series B funding and will be “opening applications to the general public in the U.S. in the coming weeks.”
The investment round has been “led by FPV Ventures, the new venture firm from Wesley Chan, who founded Google Analytics and wrote the first checks into Robinhood and Plaid.”
Participating investors “include existing investors Craft Ventures, Spark Capital, Harrison Metal and SV Angel and new investors Abstract Ventures, the Chainsmokers and Global Founders Capital.”
This brings X1 Card’s total funding “to more than $45 million, and the new funding will be used to invest in product innovation and scale as it opens to general availability.”
The funding “follows X1’s unmatched momentum in the $2.4 trillion consumer credit card industry.”
Since rolling out to a limited waitlist-only beta in October, X1 has “become the fastest growing challenger credit card of all time and is on track to see $1B in annualized spend this year with a transaction happening every 5 seconds.”
The card has been “used in more than 100 countries and has members in all 50 states.” In the coming weeks, applications for the card will “open to its 500,000-person waitlist and the general public.”
Wesley Chan, co-founder of FPV Ventures, said:
“X1 is an iconic brand that will become the most in-demand credit card of all time. Deepak’s team has reimagined the credit card from the ground up, reinventing every detail through the lens of eye-catching design, forward-thinking tech and a world-class user experience. We’re thrilled to be investing in X1 and can’t wait for them to build an amazing base of happy and engaged users.”
Made with 17 grams of sleek, stainless steel, X1 Card “harnesses the power of technology to offer smart credit limits, an unparalleled rewards program, and automated features that will transform the way people shop and spend.”
The no-annual-fee card is partnered “with Visa Signature, allowing cardholders to use it at more than 46M merchants, and incurs no foreign transaction fees. Features include:”
An app experience members love: The app “notifies members immediately about every purchase, awards points the second the card is used, allows cardholders to find any transaction with a quick and easy search, and dispute purchases in seconds, not hours. 90 percent of cardholders use X1 Card’s app on a monthly basis.”
Virtual cards “powering unrivaled smart features: X1 cardholders can create virtual cards allowing them to easily cancel subscription payments, end free trials automatically, authorize cards for one-time use, get a new card right in the app if their physical card is lost, and shop anonymously.”
Approximately 10% of X1’s spend today is “powered by virtual cards.”
Rewards with no annual fee: The X1 Card “gives points for every single purchase.” The reward structure “coupled with no annual fees is unmatched in the industry with 2x points on every $1 spent, 3x points on every $1 spent for the year if $15K+ is spent on the card in that year, and 4x points on every $1 spent for a month for every referral.”
Members can easily “redeem points or get cash back right in the app with a single tap, and $3M worth of points have been redeemed at select merchants or as cash back.”
Higher limits: By looking at current and future income instead of credit score, the X1 Card can “responsibly set smart credit limits up to 5x higher than traditional credit cards.”
Insurance and benefits for a no-fee card: Since the beta launch, X1 has “added a slew of new perks including cell phone protection, trip interruption or cancellation reimbursement, purchase security, auto rental collision damage waiver, extended warranty protection, return protection, zero liability protection, Visa Signature Concierge Service, travel and emergency assistance, and roadside dispatch.”
A new family plan: Members can now “add family members as cardholders and earn points together.”
Every cardholder “receives their own metal card, and members can keep track of family spending with instant purchase notifications and insights and add purchase limits to prevent overspending.” Added cardholders can “be any age, making it a great way to build credit for kids.”
Deepak Rao, co-founder of X1, remarked:
“The credit card industry has long been overdue for disruption, so we set out to build the world’s smartest credit card for a new generation of digital natives like ourselves. We’ve modernized the entire credit card experience, from limits to rewards to smart tech-driven features, and created a product that consumers truly love. We’re incredibly honored by the warm reception our card has received so far and thrilled to be partnering with FPV Ventures’s Wesley Chan, a brilliant product-driven founder and early investor in consumer fintech disruptors like Robinhood.”