Tillful, the business credit platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), has announced a partnership with Highnote and Mastercard to introduce the Tillful Card, a new, first-of-its-kind business credit card purpose-built for SMB owners to help increase their access to credit and growth capital.
The Tillful platform was launched in 2020 by Flowcast – the AI credit risk company – to give Main Street SMBs access to a new kind of business credit score, along with previously unavailable credit-building tools and services. Leveraging Flowcast’s AI expertise in credit risk assessment, Tillful uses real-time, alternative transaction data to build a more accurate picture of an SMB’s creditworthiness.
Launching in early 2022, the Tillful Card aims to serve new and emerging businesses as well as underrepresented SMB borrowers, sometimes referred to as the “underbanked.” This historically “credit invisible” segment of SMB borrowers tends to face more challenges to stay in business due to lack of credit history, which decreases their access to credit from lenders. The Tillful Card enables SMB owners to maintain and grow their businesses in several ways:
- Upon approval, cardholders can almost immediately begin making business purchases online, in-app and at the point of sale using either virtual or physical card.
- Reports payment history to credit bureaus to help build business credit quicker
- A rewards program tailored to SMB owners
- Cardholders have access to exclusive discounts on popular small business services including 40 per cent off QuickBooks for a year, special pricing on software like Salesforce Essentials and Mastercard ID Theft Protection
- Cardholders can create an unlimited number of virtual cards at no cost
- Option for monthly payments compared to fixed daily or weekly payments
- No minimum bank balance requirements for approval
The Tillful Card features Mastercard as the exclusive card network, and is powered by Highnote, a modern card issuance platform. Tillful teamed up with Highnote and Mastercard because of their deep industry experience in payments and financial services and their’ commitment to advancing the SMB segment, in addition to increasing equitable and sustainable financial inclusion.
“Tillful’s core mission is to make the credit ecosystem accessible to the Main Street small businesses who are overlooked for financing opportunities by conventional banks and lenders,” said Ken So, CEO and co-founder of Tillful. “In Highnote and Mastercard, we have technology partners as equally customer-obsessed as we are, that together are building innovative solutions to help SMBs build credit and achieve their full potential.”
“We built Highnote to be a truly modern card issuance platform, one that lets any visionary company, from startup to global enterprise, create, iterate, and scale innovative embedded card issuance experiences to grow customer loyalty, engagement, and revenue,” said John Macllwaine, Highnote’s co-founder and CEO. “Now, in partnership with Tillful, we’re excited to help Main Street SMBs gain access to the credit they need to build tomorrow’s best companies.”
“Access to fast, secure and convenient payments is critical to small business owners building and growing their businesses,” said Sherri Haymond, Executive Vice President, Digital Partnerships at Mastercard. “As the small business segment continues to digitally transform and evolve, it is imperative to provide solutions that work harder for them and their operations – making the Tillful Card more relevant than ever.”
Tillful is the flagship product of Flowcast, backed by ING Ventures, and its business credit platform has seen tremendous growth since launching in the fall of 2020.
