Unlocking UPSIDER's corporate card infrastructure to create a society where all challengers can move forward

There are many companies in Japan today that are trying to take on new challenges. Companies that are launching new businesses, aiming for growth, and in need of capital are trying to move forward every day.

However, the more a company tries to take on challenges, the harder it is to obtain credit under existing financial systems, and the issue of "not receiving the necessary amount at the time it is needed" still remains in Japan.

UPSIDER has addressed this issue with its corporate card, "UPSIDER," which is characterized by providing large credit limits speedily by using proprietary AI technology to predict a company's "present" and "future," rather than the conventional corporate card practice of calculating credit limits based on a company's "past."

And last year, we began an initiative to open up to society the AI credit technology and financial infrastructure that we have honed through the operation of the "UPSIDER" corporate card.

In this article, we will explain what the external provision of UPSIDER's corporate card infrastructure is, and why UPSIDER is seriously committed to this business.

To begin with, what is a corporate card?

When you hear "corporate card," many people might imagine a credit card with a company logo on it. However, if you actually try to provide a corporate card from scratch on your own, designing the logo and the card face is nowhere near enough.

Behind the scenes, there is a system that is more complex and difficult than one might imagine.

1. Membership in international payment networks and security

To make a card usable worldwide, it is necessary to join international payment networks such as VISA or Mastercard. To do so, compliance with world-class strict security standards (PCI DSS) is required. This alone requires specialized knowledge and a preparation period of years.

2. Design of advanced "credit (screening)"

Before issuing a card, you must screen the applying company and design an appropriate credit limit. Credit is the process of judging "how much money this company can safely use." If the amount is too large, the risk of default (non-payment) increases, and if it is too small, it hinders the company's growth. To set an appropriate limit, advanced screening capabilities, such as analysis of financial data and evaluation of business growth potential, are required.

3. Endless real-time operations

Furthermore, once the card starts being used, real-time detection of fraudulent use, management of transaction statements, monthly billing processing, and collection operations in the event of non-payment are also required. Customer support to assist customers is also indispensable.

In other words, a corporate card is not "done once issued." It is a service that only creates value by accurately keeping complex operations—from screening, credit assessment, payment processing, fraud monitoring, and billing collection to customer support—running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

If one were to try to build this from scratch, it would require deep expertise in the financial domain, a vast amount of time for system development, and significant capital, making new entry not easy.

What UPSIDER has built since its founding

Through its corporate card business, UPSIDER has developed and operated all financial functions—payment, credit assessment, and billing collection—in-house. The cumulative payment volume has exceeded 1 trillion yen 1, and the number of adopting companies has exceeded 100,000 2.

Supporting this growth is our independently developed AI credit model. Under conventional systems, there was a strong tendency to emphasize past financial results, and there were many situations where sufficient credit was difficult to reach for newly established companies or startups that were growing rapidly while digging into the red with upfront investments. There was a structural contradiction where the more a company tried to take on challenges, the less it could borrow funds.

By utilizing real-time transaction data and multifaceted information regarding business growth potential, UPSIDER created a mechanism to evaluate a company's potential in real-time. It became possible to provide up to 1 billion yen in credit in as little as a few seconds, even to newly established companies and startups before they become profitable. It is a mechanism that evaluates a company's "future," which cannot be seen from the numbers in financial statements alone.

Could we deliver this credit model and financial infrastructure, which we have continued to refine, more broadly to society? With that thought in mind, we decided to provide our corporate card infrastructure to external parties.

*1 Total transaction volume since the release of the corporate card 'UPSIDER' and the invoice card payment service 'Shiharai.com' provided by our company, as of November 2025. *2 Total number of registered companies since the release of all services provided by our company, as of November 2025.

Opening up UPSIDER's corporate card infrastructure to reach challengers across Japan with credit

In July 2025, we launched an initiative to provide the corporate card infrastructure that UPSIDER has refined in-house to partner companies, enabling them to launch their own corporate card businesses under their own brands.

We provide partner companies with everything necessary to operate a corporate card business, including AI models for credit screening, real-time payment processing systems, fraud detection and monitoring operations, billing and debt collection mechanisms, and customer support structures.

This allowspartner companies to launch their own branded corporate card businesses without spending vast amounts of time and money building a financial infrastructure from scratch.

The reason UPSIDER is working on providing its corporate card infrastructure externally is not merely to expand revenue sources.

There are over 3 million small and medium-sized enterprises and small businesses in Japan. Startups, micro-enterprises, local manufacturers, and growing SaaS companies—each one supports the backbone of the Japanese economy. However, many of them have continued to miss growth opportunities because they could not obtain the funds necessary for their challenges in a timely manner.

There is a limit to the number of companies UPSIDER can directly support on its own. However,by providing financial infrastructure through partner companies, we can deliver appropriate credit to challengers everywhere in Japan who were previously unreachable. For example, if a major financial institution utilizes this platform, credit will reach their client companies nationwide. If a local SaaS company utilizes it, credit will reach the local small and medium-sized enterprises that are their customers. UPSIDER's technology is becoming a social infrastructure.

By widely opening our corporate card infrastructure to external companies, we aim to correct the disparity in financial access for small and medium-sized enterprises, create diverse options regardless of region or scale, and realize a world where everyone can continue to take on challenges.

UPSIDER's mission is to 'create a global financial platform that supports challengers.' Providing our corporate card infrastructure externally is an initiative to realize that mission not by the power of one company, but by changing the structure of the entire industry.

We hope to create a future where the potential of all companies is unlocked even further, and to become an engine that supports the economy of this country.

Please also take a look at the article explaining how we technically advanced, designed, and built the external provision of our corporate card infrastructure from the perspective of the engineers involved in the implementation.

UPSIDER is looking for colleagues to join us in the challenge of our mission to 'create a global financial platform that supports challengers.'

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