/Companies

Emburse

AcquiredYC W16

San Francisco, US · 11 known investors

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Emburse is a travel and expense management platform that helps organizations automate T&E processes, improve compliance, and gain spending visibility. The company serves enterprise teams managing corporate travel and expense administration.

Also known as Emburse Inc.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFintechSaaSUnited States of AmericaAmerica / Canada

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W16)

PLPeter Lai
Peter LaiFounder & CEO2014–2019Peter Lai graduated from MIT with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science and cognitive science. He previously founded Crocodoc and currently leads Emburse.
RGRoger Gu
Roger GuCo Founder (Acquired), GM of cards2015–2022Roger Gu is the founder of Emburse, a travel and expense management platform for enterprise organizations.
TPTed Power
Ted PowerChief Product Officer2019–2021Founder/CPO at Abacus
JHJoshua Halickman
Joshua HalickmanSVP, Engineering2020–2023Founder/CTO at Abacus
OQOmar Qari
Omar QariBoard Advisor2023–2024Founder/CEO at Abacus

Investors · 11

Company profile

researched Aug 2026

Emburse offers travel and expense (T&E) management software that combines expense management, corporate travel booking, accounts payable automation, corporate cards, invoice processing and ACH/global payments in a single platform. The company positions its offering around real-time spend visibility across channels, automated pre-submission processing (including automatic categorization across more than 39 categories, global VAT reconciliation and multi-currency support) and localization for over 100 countries.

The platform includes an AI-based compliance layer, Emburse Assurance, which analyzes receipts before and after submission, guides employees in real time, applies expense policies consistently and flags potential errors, fraud and policy violations for finance reviewers. Additional modules cover travel orchestration with mobile-first booking-to-reimbursement workflows, AP and reimbursement automation, and analytics products that provide AI-driven forecasting and risk detection on spend data.

Business model

Emburse sells software modules for expense, travel, invoice and payments, and cards to organizations, alongside a card program used by customers to consolidate payment and reimbursement processes.

Latest developments

Recent company communications center on the launch of Emburse Assurance, an AI-powered compliance layer for expense review, and on external recognition including CNBC's 2026 top fintech list and Fast Company's 2026 World's Most Innovative Companies list.

▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography

Market position

Emburse has been recognized by CNBC as one of the world's top fintech companies for 2026, named to Fast Company's 2026 list of the World's Most Innovative Companies, listed among G2's Top 50 Best Products for Finance, and named a Leader in three IDC MarketScape reports covering AI-enabled travel and expense applications; it also received a Gold Stevie Award for Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year.

Emburse cites a series of industry firsts, including the first expense reporting app in the Apple App Store, the first real-time machine-learning-powered expense submission and reimbursement, the first agency-agnostic online booking tool supporting GDS NDC shopping and booking with NDC paid seats, the first fully customizable travel management app, the first fully mobile-capable expense tracking solution, the first air contract auditing solution, the first automated hotel reshopping and rebooking solution, and a proprietary agentic AI expense experience.

Technology

The company describes proprietary, finance-first AI engineered for precision, security and redundancy, including an agentic AI expense experience, machine-learning-based real-time expense submission and reimbursement, automatic expense categorization, receipt analysis for compliance checking, and forecasting and risk-detection analytics.

Go-to-market

Finance, accounting, accounts payable and corporate travel teams at mid-sized and large organizations; named customers include Toyota, Databricks, Slalom, General Motors, K. Hovnanian and Duane Morris LLP.

Geography

Product localization covers more than 100 countries, with global VAT reconciliation and multi-currency support.

Compiled by commissioned research from 1 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.

Key figures

latest reported
Automatic expense categoriesJan 202639 categories
Countries supported (product localization)Jan 2026100

Company-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.

Founder mafia

5 people who came through Emburse went on to found or lead other companies.

Related companies · 10

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Fresh BooksFreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting and invoicing platform designed for small service-based businesses. The software helps business owners manage invoicing, accounting, and financial connections with customers.

Companies working in the same space as Emburse.

Timeline · 6

launches, deals, and filings
Jan 2026
Fast Company World's Most Innovative Companies 2026

Fast Company named Emburse to its 2026 list of the World's Most Innovative Companies.

source ↗

Jan 2026
G2 Top 50 Best Products for Finance

G2 selected Emburse products among its Top 50 Best Products for Finance.

source ↗

Jan 2026
Gold Stevie Award, Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year

Emburse won a Gold Stevie Award in the Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year category.

source ↗

Jan 2026
Named a Leader in three IDC MarketScape reports

Emburse was named a Leader in three IDC MarketScape reports covering AI-enabled travel and expense applications.

source ↗

Jan 2026
Named to CNBC's World's Top FinTech Companies 2026

Emburse was recognized by CNBC as one of the World's Top FinTech Companies for 2026.

source ↗

Jan 2026
Emburse Assurance AI compliance layer

Emburse introduced Emburse Assurance, an AI-powered compliance layer that analyzes receipts before and after submission, applies expense policies consistently, and flags errors, fraud and policy violations for finance teams; announced via press release.

source ↗

Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.

Legal entities · 1

corporate structure
Emburse, Inc.

▸Research sources · 1

primary sources listed

1 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.

Frequently asked questions

What does Emburse do?
Emburse provides AI-driven travel, expense, AP, card and payments management software for finance teams.
Who founded Emburse?
Emburse was founded by Peter Lai, Roger Gu.
Who are Emburse's investors?
Emburse's investors include 500 Global, Bain Capital Ventures, Newion, Pear VC, Teamworthy Ventures, Y Combinator, Agrolimen Ventures, E-Merge and 3 more.
Where is Emburse headquartered?
Emburse is headquartered in San Francisco, US.