Four days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, “Financial Technology” startup -pandup has released a step on how to fight wasteful government costs. In 4000 words Message in the blog Under the name “Efficiency Form”, Ramp CEO and one of its investors repeated ideas similar to those promoting Trump and its immigrant Elon Musk: federal programs were overcome by fraud, and the methods of common sense can be corrected.
RAMP sells corporate credit cards and artificial intelligence software for the cost to analyze. And although the firm seems to have no existing federal contracts, the government should consider applying. Just as Ramp helped business manage its budget, the company “can do the same for different government agencies,” the blog and social media company reports messages.
It has not been a long time to find the ramp. In the first three months of Trump as its leaders, at least four private meetings with appointed presidents in the general services administration, which control the main federal contracts. Some meetings were organized by the country’s main employee Josh Grunbaum, the Commissioner of the Federal Purchase Service.
GSA pursuing a ramp to obtain a $ 700 billion government -known SmartPay $ 700 billion. In recent weeks, Trump designed in GSA is moving fast to push the pilot card for up to $ 25 million, Propublica sources have reported, even if Moscow’s Department of Government Efficiency emphasizes the many contracts it has canceled in federal agencies.
Founded six years ago, the ramp is supported by one of the most powerful figures in the Silicon Valley. One of them is Peter Tyl, a venture capitalist -millder, who was one of Trump’s earliest supporters in the technology world and spent millions that helped the Vice President of JD Vance in Ohio Senate. According to PitchBook, the Thiel, the founders of the fund, has invested in seven separate RAMP financing rounds. Last year, Thiel said there was no “better” at the intersection of II and finance.
To date, the company has raised about $ 2 billion, Venture Capital, according to the Crunchbase launch site, most of its firms related to Trump and Musk. Other major financial supporters of the ramp include a whale Rabois from the Haslan -Venchur; Tsitova’s Capacity Capital, Founded by Joshua Kushner, Trump’s son -in -law Jerde Kushner; and 8VC, a firm run by Musk allies.
Gruenbaum paid special attention for the ramp the flags inside and outside the agency. “This goes against all the usual guarantees that are set to prevent rewarding contracts on the basis of the one you know,” said Scott Amy, a two -party lawyer at the government. He said that civil servants should conduct the process to choose the best choice for taxpayers.
A senior GSA official, who asked for anonymity, said the high -level ramp received was unusual, especially before the application was published. “You do not want to give the impression that the leadership has already decided the winner.”
GSA reported propublica that “refutes any proposal on unfair and preferred contract practice” when the press secretary added that “the credit card reform initiative was well known to the society, seeking to solve waste, fraud and abuse.”
Ramp did not respond to comment requests.
Rabois, one of the earliest Ramp investors, is part of an influential technology group known as “PayPal Mafia”. Early payment company leaders include several influential players surrounding the Trump administration, including Musk and Til. Robois and his husband Jacob Helberg took A fundraiser that attracted up to $ 1 million per Trump company 2024According to media reports. Trump highlighted Gelberg for the senior role in the State Department.
Rabus sits at the Ramp Board. He said he did not plan to join the Trump administration tells CNBC: “I have ideas I can feed them the right people.” He told Propublica his comments on CNBC about the ideas of politics with a big picture, and that he “did not participate in any government -related initiatives for the company.” Ramp “can be a great choice for any government who wants to increase its effectiveness,” Rabois added.
Helberg said he was not involved in “no ramp.”
Thrive Capital, Kushner, did not respond to a comment request. Thiel’s press -secretary did not comment. 8VC did not respond to a request for comment, as well as the White House, nor Musk; Earlier, Musk said that “I would give up” when there are problems with conflicts.
Ramp meetings with Gruenbaum – Disposing from a private KKR firm and has no previous government experience – came at a convenient moment. By the end of the year, GSA decides whether to expand the SmartPay contract and preparations for the next generation of the program. SmartPay costs hundreds of millions of dollars for financial institutions that currently run it, US Bank and Citibank.
Gruenbaum and Acting GSA Administrator Stephen Egician entered the agency with great conviction that SmartPay and other state payment programs were full of fraud or waste, which led to great losses, sources within the GSA – the idea echoed in January Ramp.
However, both the GoP and the Democratic budget, as well as the former GSA officials, describe this opinion as incorrect. SmartPay, which provides visa cards and MasterCard by a civil servant, allows the Federal workforce to acquire office supplies and equipment, the book and to pay for gas.
Cards are commonly used to finance travel and shopping up to $ 10,000.
“SmartPay is a government source,” said former GSA commissioner Sonya Hashmi, who oversee the program. “This is a well -launched program that solves the real world problems … With the exceptional level of supervision and prevention of fraud is already baked.”
Jessica Ridle, GOP budget expert at the Conservative Manhattan Analytical Center, said the Charge Card Card Carding was far -fetched. It criticized the waste in government credit card programs before the last SmartPay system was implemented in 2018.
“It was a huge problem about 20-25 years ago,” she said. “In the last 15 years, new control elements have appeared in public credit card purchases.”
A Audit Program 2017 The Ministry of Government Accountability concluded that SmartPay purchased small purchases “little evidence of potential fraud”, although it revealed errors in the documentation. Later state audits have revealed some cases where officials did not always use the funds against fraud.
The new GSA leaders are convinced that SmartPay is completely broken, the opinion they shared at private meetings, sources said. In February, they put a temporary limit of $ 1 on government cards and strongly restricted the number of cardholders, thinking with workers in the field.
Government has come chaosThe news organizations say that the staff of the National Institute of Health is reported to be unable to purchase materials for experiments, federal aviation administration workers are worried that they will not be able to pay for tests in this field, and the National Park staff cannot travel to control road service projects.
At the time GSA released the statement Speaking that the restrictions were “the best risk reduction practices” and internally began to move to revise SmartPay.
25 million dollars Opportunities
The first bite SmartPay Business Ramp can go through a pilot program worth up to $ 25 million, which GSA announced a few weeks after the agency’s management started dating the company.
At the end of the Biden GSA administration, the GSA sent a request for information or RFI, seeking a contribution to industry information on how to improve the following SmartPay iteration. But some industry players who presented the answers said they did not hear from the government. Instead, GSA started dating with a ramp.
On March 20, 2025, the GSA released a new RFI for the pilot program, leaving it open in less than seven working days.
John Valer, co -founder of the non -profit research group Advisory Board of acquiring IT, said that such a short window turned out to be unusual. “The week is nothing, it gives the impression that they have already chosen the winner,” said Valer, who collaborated with the Republican Senator Chak Gull to investigate contracts.
Ramp is a clear “favorite” to provide this job, one source in GSA and another former official told Propublica. The winner has not yet been announced.
Procurement experts said propublica that consultations with the leaders of the industry to major repairs are a good practice-ale that the process of detecting facts should be uniform and lead professional contract staff.
The GSA press secretary said “any connection with the potential suppliers, which had several, was part of the market study to provide the best solution for US taxpayers.” The agency refused to answer questions about whether the ramp was internally to work SmartPay.
The pilot program is unique because it uses a special GSA procurement organ, known as commercial decisions. This process was used by the Pentagon to help speed up the purchase of militants in armed conflict zones. The designation means that the selected contractor can be chosen faster by the same level of control elements.
It is unclear how the ramp initially provided private meetings with GSA leaders. Also, it is not clear whether Rampay will eventually take the entire SmartPay contract from Citibank and US Bank. Press -Secretary for the US Bank and Citibank refused to comment.
It is clear that there was never a client on the ramp as a federal government. The only partner’s partner listed on his web page This is a network of charter in Nashville, Tennessee.
However, even before the Russian -proclaimed rum was announced, the ramp began to contact the contacts in the payment industry, asking about the special identification numbers of the banks necessary for the processing of state payments, the source of the industry said. Such steps, according to two former GSA officials, were another sign that the ramp is preparing to work on the program.
Ramp meetings with GSA come when the agency is ready to assume a more significant role in government costs. The same day was announced by the SmartPay pilot, Trump issued executive order This seeks to centralize most of the public procurement inside the GSA. The DOGE initiative was effective with the headquarters from the agency – staff have installed beds and dressers For the night stays in the building and LIFE Person Musk Steve Davis is a key advisor to the agency’s leadership.
The SmartPay contract talks have still flown under the radar. But changes to the credit card program can further transform everyday life for federal staff and fundamentally change how agencies work. It is also a giant business opportunity.
“There is a lot of money that a new company comes here,” Hashmi said, a former GSA official. “But you have to ask: what is the problem that is solved?”
Doris Burke have made research.
