Why Order.co Needed Cards
Warren Brown, VP of Product at Order, on 4 ways to monetize payments in vertical SaaS
Order.co needed cards because its product is really a controlled spending system, not just a money transfer tool. The core workflow is letting employees buy from many vendors while finance keeps tight limits, clear merchant names, and one consolidated bill. Virtual cards make that possible by letting Order.co create a card for one vendor or one purchase, set spend caps, and earn interchange, while ACH mainly helps after the platform already controls the workflow.
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Order.co runs two distinct payment motions. In Catalog, it pays vendors by virtual card or ACH, then bills the customer on net 30. In Off-Catalog, it supports only virtual cards, where customers create a card for each vendor and all charges flow back into one monthly bill and reconciliation layer.
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The practical edge of cards is control and fraud reduction. A routing number can be reused broadly if exposed. A vendor specific or transaction specific virtual card can be locked to one merchant and one amount, so misuse is much harder. Card transaction data is also cleaner for identifying the payee than typical ACH statement text.
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This is also a business model choice, not just a product choice. Order.co lists interchange as one of four revenue streams, alongside software subscription, negotiated savings, and financing. Comparable procurement and spend platforms like Tradeshift also use virtual cards to tie revenue to payment volume, not only seat fees.
Going forward, the likely end state is not cards instead of ACH, but software that uses both rails behind the scenes. Cards will remain the control layer for distributed spend and embedded monetization, while ACH expands where suppliers insist on lower cost payment. The winner is the platform that makes both feel like one workflow, one ledger, and one payable system.