Exponent is building one financial operating system - loans, a corporate charge card, and AI accounting - for multi-unit franchise operators.
Exponent, New York. The wordmark on the company's own share card - loans, cards, and accounting stacked under one name.
America runs on franchises. Roughly 845,000 franchised units generate about $921 billion in annual output and support some nine million jobs. Yet more than half of those units are controlled by a relatively small group - about 43,000 multi-unit operators - who have never had financial tools built for how they actually work.
That is the gap Exponent is filling. Founded in 2023 and based in New York, the company describes itself as the financial operating system for America's franchise economy. Instead of forcing operators to stitch together a bank for loans, a generic corporate card, and an outsourced bookkeeper, Exponent puts all three on one platform designed around franchising.
The pitch is specific rather than sweeping: underwrite loans on how a store actually performs, close them in three to four weeks instead of months, issue a card that understands an operator juggling dozens of legal entities, and replace the 45-day wait for a month-end profit-and-loss statement with real-time numbers.
CEO Sohel Roopani, a former Visa and Stripe executive who spent a decade building payments and credit infrastructure, frames the whole thing plainly: franchise operators deserve a financial partner that speaks their language. In 2026 the company raised more than $40 million in equity and credit to prove the point.
Figures per Exponent and 2026 press coverage. Revenue growth measured since commercial launch in 2025.
Expansion and acquisition financing for new build-outs, franchise buys, remodels, and bridge capital. Streamlined applications with centralized deal rooms and underwriting based on operational performance, not credit scores alone - funded in 3-4 weeks.
Live 2025A franchise-focused card with up to 3% cashback, real-time transaction tracking, automatic accounting categorization, and multi-entity controls. It even accepts brand-new EINs - useful when every location is its own legal entity.
Live 2025Real-time P&L statements and analytics backed by U.S.-based accountants, priced under $250 per location per month versus a typical $350-$1,000. Piloting from late summer 2026 to end the month-end reporting lag.
Pilot 2026Franchise operators deserve a financial partner that actually speaks its language.Sohel Roopani • Founder & CEO, Exponent
Operators running many locations sit in an awkward middle. They are too big and too complex for consumer products, but too fragmented across entities for tools built for a single corporate parent. Loans mean repetitive paperwork and slow banks. Cards are built for someone else's business. And financials arrive weeks late, long after the decisions that needed them.
Exponent's answer is consolidation: one intake, one deal room, one card that categorizes spend automatically, and one accounting layer that reports in real time. Underwriting on store performance means a strong operator with a thin credit file can still get funded - and funded fast.
The prize is large and concentrated: a handful of operators control most of the units.
Bars are illustrative and scaled for comparison, not to a single axis. Source: Exponent, 2026 press materials.
Exponent serves 100+ multi-unit operators representing more than 10,000 locations - the companies that run large portfolios of familiar brands across QSR, casual dining, automotive service, and specialty recreation.
Named operators in its network include HAZA Group, the world's largest Wendy's franchisee, along with Capstone Restaurant Group, Chunara Group, TIG Corp, and Epic Group. Some of these operators are also backers.
Brands In The Network
The 2026 raise blended equity and credit. About $10 million was equity - a $2.5 million seed and a $7.5 million Series A led by Chailease, with Andre Koo participating. The remaining $30 million-plus came as committed credit facilities, anchored by a $20 million revolving line from Jovian Capital Management.
Exponent Financial launches in New York to serve multi-unit franchise operators.
Raises a $2.5M seed led by Jasper Lau's Era to build the platform.
Lending and the corporate charge card go live; operator onboarding begins.
Secures a $20M facility from Jovian, announces a $40M+ round, and unveils its AI accounting suite.
The financial operating system this industry has been waiting for.Jasper Lau • Era, seed investor
Exponent doesn't have a single obvious rival - it competes with a category on each of its three fronts. On lending, the alternatives are traditional SBA and franchise lenders and banks. On the card, it lines up against spend-management players like Brex and Ramp. On accounting, it takes on outsourced restaurant bookkeepers and tools such as Restaurant365.
Its bet is that bundling wins for one specific buyer. A multi-unit operator would rather run capital, spend, and books through a single system that already understands franchising than assemble three general-purpose tools and reconcile them by hand. The integration - a card that feeds the books, financials that inform the next loan - is the moat.
The company's expertise comes from its founder's background in payments and credit at Visa and Stripe, paired with U.S.-based accountants staffing the accounting product. With ~800% year-over-year growth off its 2025 launch, the early signal is that operators are willing to consolidate.
The open questions are the ones facing any young lender scaling fast: can it keep credit quality high while growing the loan book, and can it run lending, cards, and accounting well at the same time? The 2026 raise - heavy on committed credit - is aimed squarely at funding that expansion.
About 43,000 operators control more than half of America's ~845,000 franchised units.
NBA forward Kyle Kuzma is one of Exponent's investors.
CEO Sohel Roopani built payments and credit infrastructure at Visa and Stripe.
The card accepts brand-new EINs - handy when every location is its own entity.
The U.S. franchise economy produces ~$921B a year and supports ~9M jobs.
Loans are structured to fund in 3-4 weeks - fast for the sector.
Exponent is a financial platform for franchise operators, combining franchise loans, a corporate charge card, and an AI-powered accounting suite in one place.
Multi-unit franchise operators - businesses running many locations of brands like Burger King, Dunkin', and Wendy's. It serves 100+ operators representing over 10,000 locations.
About $40M in combined equity and credit as of 2026, including a $7.5M Series A led by Chailease and $30M+ in credit facilities, plus a $2.5M seed round in 2024.
Exponent is led by CEO Sohel Roopani, a former Visa and Stripe executive, and was founded in 2023.
Exponent is built specifically for franchise operators - it underwrites on store performance rather than credit scores alone, funds loans in 3-4 weeks, and bundles lending, cards, and accounting into one franchise-focused platform.