Corporate card fintech Parker filed for bankruptcy this month, court documents show.
Founder Yacine Sibous confirmed the bankruptcy in a post on social media site X, calling it “a crazy turn of events.”
“Three weeks ago, I thought Parker was going to be acquired in a deal worth nearly $90M,” Sibous wrote Saturday. “Yesterday, we filed for Chapter 7.”
The Y Combinator alum served e-commerce businesses since 2019, emerging from stealth in 2023, with a corporate card offering higher limits and net terms.
At the time, Sibous told TechCrunch that Parker’s underwriting process was its “secret sauce” for its ability to properly assess e-commerce cash flows.
“We imagined building better financial products for e-commerce founders with the mission of increasing the number of financially independent people,” Sibous told the outlet.
All told, it raised $200 million in funding, including a $125 million lending arrangement.
Parker’s bankruptcy filing states that it has between $50 million and $100 million in assets, with liabilities within the same range. The firm has between 100 and 199 creditors, according to the filing.
“I know there’s going to be speculation about why Parker failed, but a lot of what’s being said online is simply not accurate,” Sibous wrote.
Noting leadership turnover, a tough market, slow growth and “the realities of trying to scale a venture-backed business after momentum fades,” Sibous said Parker’s leadership decided to pursue a sale of the business earlier this year. Ultimately, after months of work, that deal did not close, he wrote.
“After that, things moved quickly,” he wrote.
Patriot Bank, which alongside Piermont Bank was Parker’s banking partner, sent an email to customers prior to Parker’s bankruptcy filing, informing them that the cards issued under Parker’s program would not be active or usable for new charges.
The email was posted to X by Prudence Millsap, founder of e-commerce skincare business Beauty by Earth.
The hardest part of the bankruptcy, Sibous wrote on X, is how it affects customers, employees and investors.
“What I am proud of is the team,” he wrote. “Parker was built by incredibly talented people who deserved a better outcome than this. Helping them land somewhere great is my top priority right now.”
Sibous did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
