Trump Team Eyes Politically Connected Startup to Overhaul $700 Billion Government Payments Program

Ramp published a 4,000 -word blog post titled “The Efficiency Formula ” in the days before Donald Trump ’s inauguration.

Its CEO and one of its investors echoed ideas similar to those promoted by Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk .

Ramp sells corporate credit cards and artificial intelligence software for businesses to analyze spending.

The company appears to have no existing federal contracts, but the post implied the government should hire it.

Ramp ’s meetings with Gruenbaum came at an opportune moment for GSA to decide whether to extend SmartPay contract.

GSA 's new leaders are convinced SmartPay is entirely broken, sources say.

But GOP and Democratic budget experts, as well as former GSA officials, describe that view as ill-informed.

SmartPay provides Visa and Mastercard charge cards to government employees.

Ramp has never had a client like the federal government.

The only public-sector partner listed on its webpage is a charter school network in Nashville .