Lithic

Lithic is a card issuing platform that gives companies an API for creating and managing virtual and physical payment cards, letting fintech startups, software platforms, and marketplaces embed card issuing directly into their own product rather than negotiating a complex, slow integration with a traditional card network or bank partner on their own. Through Lithic's API, a company can programmatically issue cards, set granular spending controls like merchant category restrictions or per-transaction limits, and receive real-time authorization webhooks that let their own application approve or decline a transaction in the moment based on custom business logic, such as checking a user's account balance or fraud rules before a purchase completes. This real-time control is critical for use cases like expense management platforms, on-demand pay products, or accounts payable automation tools, where the card program needs to be tightly integrated with a company's own ledger and business rules rather than operating as a disconnected banking product bolted onto a separate application. Lithic handles the underlying regulatory and banking partner relationships needed to legally issue cards, which would otherwise require a fintech startup to negotiate directly with a sponsor bank and card network, a process that historically took months and significant legal resources before a single card could be issued. It's aimed at engineering teams at fintech and software companies building card-based financial products as a core part of their offering.