Matrix and PayPal Partner to Incubate Concerto, An Innovative Credit Card Issuing Platform

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TLDR: Matrix has partnered with PayPal and a team of credit industry veteran entrepreneurs to incubate Concerto, a modern and flexible credit card issuing platform. Concerto is announcing its launch today, along with card issuing partnerships with several professional baseball teams.

The U.S. credit industry is one of the most rapidly evolving and disrupted segments in fintech. This should be no surprise given the trillion-dollar scale of the market. Matrix Partners has a long history of incubating and investing early in innovative consumer credit companies, including:

  • Earnin — who pioneered a multibillion-dollar category that would become known as Earned Wage Access
  • Zest AI — who transformed how financial institutions make credit decisions with machine learning
  • Afterpay — who created the multibillion dollar consumer credit segment now known as Buy Now Pay Later (recently acquired by Square for $29B).

One of the most valuable yet overlooked segments in consumer credit is the general purpose credit card market. Matrix’s latest investment, Concerto, is bringing much needed innovation to this segment.

It all started with the realization that the market lacked a flexible, modern card-issuing solution. Matrix, PayPal, and a team of credit industry experts led by Co-Founder and CEO Dan Duncan collaborated to incubate Concerto as an independent company in response to that need. Matrix and PayPal also co-led an inception-stage investment in Concerto. Since its founding, Concerto’s vision has attracted other industry experts, such as Warren Wilcox, formerly of Visa, Providian, and Household, who is one of Concerto’s co-founders and CMO.

Concerto’s first publicly announced partnerships are with several MLB teams that will leverage Concerto to issue team-branded Mastercard cards to their fans. These cards are enhanced with unique loyalty programs designed to bring fans closer to the game than ever before. Each team has worked with Concerto to create customized rewards arrays, which include game tickets, merchandise, memorabilia and unique experiences (that money can’t buy), and periodic contests and surprises — designed to engage and delight loyal fans.

Customized credit card programs typically require long lead times and complex implementations. Concerto has combined industrial strength card processing with the newest technologies and analytics to create a platform that gets compelling card and loyalty programs to market faster.

Concerto has also entered into a multi-year strategic relationship with GoldenTree Asset Management, who will fund a minimum of $2 billion in receivables.

Matrix is excited to work with Concerto and the PayPal team to address this opportunity to improve credit card issuance and associated loyalty programs. If you’re an early stage fintech founder who wants to work with investors that understand consumer credit and the innovations that drive it, then we would love to hear from you.

You can also read about the fundraise here in TechCrunch.