Lithic enables embedded card infrastructure
Charles Birnbaum, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, on the five waves of fintech
Lithic matters because it sits one layer below the fintech brand and controls whether a product can turn card payments into software. Mercury and Novo are not just buying card issuance. They are buying the ability to create cards instantly, set tight spend rules, reconcile every transaction quickly, and plug cards into broader banking and payables workflows, which is especially valuable in B2B payments where exceptions and back office complexity matter most.
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Mercury used Lithic for its Mercury IO credit card, showing the role Lithic plays behind the scenes. Mercury owns the customer relationship, while Lithic handles the card program plumbing, network connections, and processing needed to make the product work reliably at startup scale.
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Lithic grew out of Privacy.com’s internal virtual card stack. That origin matters because the product was built first for a real card program, then exposed as APIs. The result is a system aimed at teams that want custom controls, fast testing, and modular integration with KYC, compliance, ACH, and sponsor bank partners.
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B2B is the sharpest fit because commercial payments carry richer economics and harder workflows. Research on banking infrastructure estimates commercial card interchange at about 2.5%, versus 1.35% for consumer debit, and Lithic has focused on the reconciliation, settlement data, and programmable controls that let software companies move more of those business payments onto cards.
The next step is deeper embedding of cards into software, where the user no longer thinks about the rail at all. The winners in this market will be the infrastructure providers that make cards feel like a native workflow primitive inside banking, procurement, fleet, and bill pay products, and Lithic is positioning itself to be that programmable layer for the long tail of modern B2B fintech.