Imprint Becomes Open-Loop Lender
Imprint at $70M/yr growing 367% YoY
This shift turned Imprint from a narrow loyalty tool into a real lender with much bigger revenue per cardholder. A secured charge card mainly earns swipe fees and depends on shoppers using the card at one brand. An open loop credit card works anywhere Visa or Mastercard is accepted, so Imprint can earn interest when balances revolve, plus interchange on more spend, which is why interest now makes up about 60% of revenue.
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Open loop also makes the brand offer more useful in daily life. A shopper can buy at H-E-B, then keep using the same card for gas, dining, and travel, which raises wallet share and gives the brand a richer stream of spend data than a closed store card would.
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The product change fits Imprint’s real edge, which is speed and rewards design, not cheap funding. Imprint says it can launch in about 3 months with SKU level rewards, while legacy issuers often take 12 to 18 months. That speed helped it win programs away from banks and older retail card platforms.
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This is the same lane Cardless is chasing, but with different emphasis. Cardless centers on embedding the full card experience inside a brand’s app and website, while Imprint is leaning harder into in house underwriting, broader issuer economics, and highly specific rewards like extra cash back on private label products.
From here, the market is moving toward modern co-branded cards that look like software products layered on top of lending. The winners are likely to be the platforms that can combine fast launch times, flexible rewards, strong servicing, and lower cost funding, because that mix lets them keep taking programs from incumbent banks while expanding into deposits and other branded financial products.