ernd
ernd is a YC Fall 2026 (F26) company. Based in San Francisco, CA, USA. Team of 3.
About ernd
Summary
ernd builds a corporate credit card for startups that spend heavily on AI infrastructure, including inference and GPU costs. It pools cardholders' collective spend to negotiate better pricing, higher usage limits, and priority capacity from AI providers, replacing the individual negotiations and standard rates a startup would face on its own. Cardholders also get vendor support escalation and travel booking handled by the ernd team.
Business model
4% cash back on AI vendor spend and 2% on all other purchases, with no annual fee and monthly billing.
Go-to-market
AI-spending startups are the target customer; companies join by requesting a card directly through ernd's website, with an option to book a call before signing up.
From the Y Combinator listing
The credit card for companies that pay for AI
ernd is the card for companies that pay for AI, offering up to 6% back on AI spend and 2% on everything else. We pool startups’ purchasing power to negotiate discounts, higher usage limits and priority support from AI providers. In our first 48hrs, we onboarded 10 startups and landed 5 vendor partnerships. We combine experience in quant finance at Bridgewater and IMC, payments at Ripple, financial AI at Farsight, and founding an investment fund focused on distressed industrial acquisitions.
Facts
- Fintech / Fintech
- San Francisco, CA, USA
- 3
- Active
- Early
Founders (3)
- Connor Dawson
- Nikhil Ruia
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