Kicking off a grant program for minority-owned startups is one way Transcard hopes to invest in entrepreneurship and the community after a year of dramatic growth for the payment technology business, President Chris Fuller said.
“There are a lot of super talented and passionate people who just need an opportunity,” Fuller said.
Every year, the AccelUp program will give 10 minority-owned startups a $15,000 grant, and Fuller has already identified three businesses that will benefit from the program, he said. They range from a private security company to an up-and-coming sushi restaurant to a gym.
“It’s all about the owner and their story and their passion for what they do,” Fuller said.
The AccelUp program is an effort to help fund and encourage entrepreneurs who could use access not just to cash but to workspace, networks and expertise, Fuller said. Transcard was a “Wild West” startup for years, and he understands how daunting and chaotic those early days can be, Fuller said.
AccelUp
Transcard has launched AccelUp, an accelerator program for minority owned startups in Chattanooga. The program provides a $15,000 grant, as well as access to resources and networking. Entrepreneurs can apply online at AccelUp.com.
The business now has more than 2,000 clients, many of them Fortune 500 companies, and has seen 100% revenue growth year-over-year, with $30 million in revenue last year, he said.
In the last four to six months, Transcard has hired about 60 people, nearly doubling its staff to 120 in the U.S., Fuller said. In addition, Transcard has a dozen employees in the U.K., four in Austria and 75 in Moldova, where technology and marketing resources are largely based.
“Moldova is a phenomenal country, and the technical resources are great,” Fuller said. “The young people there are building their economy from nothing and they’re passionate about what they’re doing.”
Transcard spent $4.5 million and two-and-a-half years renovating the former Southern Express Building at 1010 Market St., and had planned a splashy grand opening in spring 2020. Instead, most employees went home, but Transcard will welcome everyone back to the space on Aug. 2.
Employees will work flex schedules, with three days in the office and two at their own discretion, but having everyone together at least part of the time is important as the company continues its pace of rapid growth, Fuller said.
“We’re growing so quickly, and collaboration is so important,” he said.
The space features fun touches including beer on tap, video games, a gym and a golf simulator, as well as art that highlights its Tennessee roots, including a massive mug shot of Elvis outside a conference space known as the Jungle Room, and neon wall art that mirrors the outlines of Chattanooga’s rivers and mountains.
Transcard began in 2005 inside trucking giant U.S. Xpress, which was founded by Fuller’s father Max, as a way to track and process fuel payments. It grew into its own entity, and sold in 2011 to U.S. Bank. That deal came with a 10-year non-compete in fuel payment processing, so Transcard replicated its services for other industries, including health care and pharmaceutical manufacturing.
They were initially focused on consumer-level transactions, but the business-to-business space has been growing and exploded during the pandemic as companies looked for ways to handle transactions without any manual processes, Fuller said.
“There’s a huge need in that market,” he said. “We were already growing, but the pandemic definitely accelerated that. For so many companies, all those back-end processes were manual, and businesses needed to automate payments.”
Governments are also becoming clients as they look for ways to streamline payments, Fuller added. The company recently landed a contract with the state of Arizona to help with $300 million in disbursements, he said.
“Government payouts in general, it’s all been check-based,” he said. “We’re creating efficiency.”
Contact Mary Fortune at mfortune@timesfreepress.com. Follow her on Twitter at @maryfortune.