Fast, Secure Spending: Behind Atlanta-based Project Spending Platform Speedchain

The fintech world is dominated by neobanks, mobile payments and peer-to-peer lending companies. The world’s biggest fintechs, like Stripe and Chime, have become household names by focusing on how consumers pay and move their money.

But there’s a part of the financial world that fintech hasn’t really touched, says Atlanta-based entrepreneur Daniel Cage. This includes developing tools to help finance teams operate more efficiently. This is especially true for businesses that generate revenue through complex projects, such as general contractors and field services in the construction industry.

The reality is that finance teams often don’t have data or insight into how other departments within their company are spending money on different projects. And it’s common for teams to work on multiple projects at the same time. But traditional financial tools lack the sophisticated categorization needed to track how a modern company’s employees spend their money, Cage told Hypepotamus.

Cage and his team are looking to solve this problem with a new type of business project and expense management tool, Speedchain.

Fast and secure spending options

Speedchain, based in Atlanta, provides finance teams with real-time visibility and controls over spending while allowing them to map spending directly to specific projects.

The origins of the idea began in 2020, with the company officially launching in 2021. Late last year, the team launched its commercial card issuing business. Its business credit and debit cards, powered by Mastercard, enable secure payments with instant reconciliation. Finance teams can quickly define individualized spending controls, set transaction limits, and better track how money is allocated and spent across projects.

This is particularly useful in the large-project construction sector, where Speedchain has found its vertical focus. The venture-backed startup recently launched on Procore Marketplace, a popular online platform for construction management companies.

SmartPM and Document Crunch, two other construction-focused startups expanding in Atlanta, are also listed on the market.

As a growing fintech startup, Speedchain has brought in a mix of data scientists and payments engineers to scale. Team members come from giants like Accenture, EY, JP Morgan Chase and Apache, according to Cage.