Rep. Gerald Connolly, the senior Democratic member of the U.S. House Oversight Committee, has launched an inquiry into the expense management startup Ramp, suspecting it may be receiving unfair advantages in pursuit of a $25 million government contract.
Connolly addressed a letter to Stephen Ehikian, the Acting Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA), requesting detailed documents regarding the GSA’s intentions to award Ramp a contract for a pilot programme linked to the agency’s SmartPay initiative, which is an extensive $700 billion expense card scheme. Reports about Connolly’s scrutiny first surfaced through ProPublica.
Among Connolly’s apprehensions is Ramp’s lack of prior experience in federal contracting and its ties to high-profile investors, many of whom are allies of former President Trump. Notable backers include Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Joe Lonsdale of 8VC, and Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures, with Rabois reportedly having raised over $1 million for Trump’s 2024 campaign. Connolly has requested records of all interactions between GSA officials and Ramp representatives to determine if any preferential treatment has occurred.
Lindsay McKinley, Ramp’s head of communications, stated in April that the startup is competing in a standard procurement process for the SmartPay pilot, asserting that their proposal is based on the quality of their solution. Ramp indicated that their engagement with the GSA began following a public communication from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this year, which detailed the scale of the government’s expense card system.
However, Connolly’s inquiry raises questions about Ramp’s approach prior to the formal announcement of the contract opportunity; he has claimed that Ramp was already in discussions with payment industry entities about essential processing numbers before the request for information was made public. Furthermore, concerns have been raised after a GSA employee reportedly referred to Ramp as the “favourite” to secure the contract.
At present, Ramp has not commented on the ongoing investigation. The startup has seen rapid growth, doubling its valuation to $13 billion in March following a substantial secondary share sale, while raising more than $1 billion in equity financing and $700 million in debt funding since its launch in 2019.
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