Karat Financial Builds Creator Banking Platform and Hires in Los Angeles
Traditional banks evaluate businesses on commercial leases, steady monthly payrolls, and conventional credit bureau histories. Digital content creators across YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, and Instagram rarely fit those profiles despite generating substantial revenue. Karat Financial was founded in 2019 to underwrite creators using metrics native to online media, such as follower numbers, audience engagement, and platform ad payouts.
After initially establishing its business around the Karat Black Card, the 40-person fintech has expanded into a full business banking platform. Supported by a partnership with Visa to deliver financial tools for online businesses, the company is now building out its core infrastructure and internal automation across six open roles based primarily in Los Angeles, California.
Underwriting Online Audiences
Karat Financial calculates credit lines and offers financial services by evaluating creator-specific revenue streams rather than traditional credit scores. As co-founder Eric Wei noted in an interview with Banking Dive, traditional financial institutions have routinely rejected full-time creators because their underwriting models fail to interpret fluctuating digital revenues.
The company's flagship Karat Black Card offers limits linked directly to social metrics, with early cardholders averaging more than 1 million followers and upwards of $100,000 in bank deposits. Over time, Karat has broadened its product line to include business accounts and data benchmarking tools that let digital creators compare earnings across platforms. As reported by TechCrunch and Tubefilter, Karat launched its dedicated business banking platform to centralize deposits, payments, and expenses for creator-run operations.
Karat's founders bring complementary backgrounds from social media and finance. Eric Wei, who studied economics at Harvard, worked in investment banking at Blackstone and management consulting at McKinsey before serving as a product manager on Instagram Live. Co-founder Will Kim studied symbolic systems at Stanford, ran microfinance lending initiatives, and evaluated mid-market enterprise investments in Goldman Sachs's Special Situations Group. The pair launched Karat through Y Combinator's W20 batch and later raised a $26 million Series A led by Union Square Ventures, as reported by FinTech Futures, before securing a $70 million Series B.
Scaling Operations and Internal Systems
To manage its transition from a niche charge card into a broader banking platform, Karat is replacing manual workflows with custom software and data infrastructure. The company relies on a modern software stack including React, MongoDB, and Snowflake.
Karat is recruiting a Senior Product Manager in Los Angeles ($150,000 - $170,000) to own product thinking for its operational core. The role focuses on how businesses apply for credit and requires building clickable prototypes, utilizing AI tools to ship features, and automating operational workflows for compliance and support teams. Working alongside product, the company seeks a Product Engineer, Karat Platform ($130,000 - $170,000) to build and evolve internal dashboards, Slack bots, and automated systems that replace manual procedures across risk, support, and compliance.
Data and user growth represent another hiring focus. Karat is hiring a Data Product Engineer in Los Angeles ($130,000 - $170,000) to construct data pipelines and models in Snowflake while shipping internal dashboards and user-facing data interfaces. For conversion funnels, an open Growth Engineer role ($130,000 - $170,000) designs and ships experiments across onboarding and conversion flows for banking and card products.
On the security side, Karat is hiring its first Founding Security Engineer ($120,000 - $170,000), which can be worked on-site in Los Angeles or remotely within the United States. This engineer will establish a security program across Karat's cloud infrastructure and banking applications, write infrastructure as code, build SOC 2 compliance controls, and establish security standards for the company's internal use of AI agents. Rounding out the team, Karat is also seeking a generalist in Business Operations & Finance ($120,000 - $150,000) to analyze business metrics, manage product launches, and optimize cross-functional workflows.
Open Roles at Karat Financial
| Role | Location | Work Mode | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Operations & Finance | Los Angeles, CA, US | Onsite | $120,000 – $150,000 |
| Senior Product Manager | Los Angeles, CA, US | Onsite | $150,000 – $170,000 |
| Founding Security Engineer | Los Angeles, CA, US / Remote (US) | Remote | $120,000 – $170,000 |
| Product Engineer, Karat Platform | Los Angeles, CA, US | Onsite | $130,000 – $170,000 |
| Data Product Engineer | Los Angeles, CA, US | Onsite | $130,000 – $170,000 |
| Growth Engineer | Los Angeles, CA, US | Onsite | $130,000 – $170,000 |
