Coast

Coast is a financial technology company that builds payments and expense management products for fleet and field service businesses. Its core offering is a fleet fuel and expense card issued in collaboration with Visa, paired with software that gives administrators real-time visibility and fine-grained spend controls over a mobile, field-based workforce. The company positions its mission as being the financial platform for the future of transportation.

Product capabilities described by the company include a patent-pending SMS-based expense management system intended to reduce time spent by drivers at the pump and remove the need to manage per-vehicle or per-driver cards; fully fungible expense cards that simplify card assignment and replacement; an automated online application that can prequalify a business for a charge card in minutes; and a charge card with monthly payment terms and no personal guarantee. Coast has stated a roadmap covering additional administrator controls, alerts and reporting, expansion of allowable purchase categories beyond fuel with SMS-based approval of one-off expenses, and integrations with accounting, fleet management and telematics systems. The company has also said it intends to address fuel payments for electric fleets and expense tracking for autonomous vehicles. In 2024 reporting, Coast's payments technology was described as leveraging vehicle data and telematics, and the company launched a mobile app for collecting and verifying transaction data such as receipts, memos and job codes.

Founding story

Coast was founded by Daniel Simon, who serves as CEO and authored the company's Series A announcement.

Business model

Coast provides a Visa-based fleet charge card together with subscription expense management software. The company has cited pricing as low as $2 per active driver per month for its payments tools and software, and states that it avoids fees common in the fleet payments industry, including per-gallon administration fees, per-transaction fees, electronic and phone payment fees, check processing fees, low gas price surcharges, inactive card fees, reporting fees, minimum administration fees, portal access fees and tiered late fees. It returns 2 cents per gallon to businesses purchasing fuel with the Coast card.

Software and payments platform fees charged per active driver per month, alongside a card program operated in collaboration with Visa.

Traction

Coast reported thousands of users, including BuildOps, Sheetz and 7-Eleven, and revenue growth of more than ten times over an 18-month period as of its Series B announcement. Total funding was reported at $165 million including debt, with equity financing just under $100 million.

Latest developments

Coast closed a $40 million Series B led by ICONIQ Growth with a strategic investment from Synchrony and participation from Accel, Insight Partners, Vesey Ventures, Avid Ventures and new investor Thomvest. ICONIQ Growth General Partner Yoonkee Sull joined the board of directors. Earlier the same month, Coast launched a mobile app for collecting and verifying fleet transaction data.