How Bland AI Built Financial Infrastructure for Hypergrowth

Bland AI, a San Francisco-based conversational AI platform, has emerged as one of the fastest-growing startups reshaping enterprise communications. The company powers high-volume phone calls, lead qualification, and customer support through hyper-realistic AI voice agents handling millions of simultaneous conversations across any language or region.

Following a $40 million Series B raise in early 2025, Bland AI faced the operational complexity that comes with hypergrowth: rapid team expansion, a global marketplace presence, and enterprise clients ranging from the Cleveland Cavaliers to Better.com. This and more demanded financial systems sophisticated enough to match the company's trajectory and provide the strategic visibility required to deploy newly funded capital intelligently.

According to co-founder and COO Sobhan Nejad, the search for the right spend platform was straightforward.¹ "There are a lot of different companies in the spend management space," he explained. "The main reasons we chose Slash were ease of use, how quickly we could onboard, the cashback component, and to be honest, the other piece is just when you really like the team you're working with."

The responsiveness mattered. "The second you have a problem, you can ping someone. Having the chief growth officer or the founder just immediately respond goes a long way."

The Visibility Gap

Before Slash, Bland had controls in place, but visibility was thin. Financial decisions required more digging than the team had bandwidth for.

"Before using Slash we did have some level of spend controls, but the analytics and observability into which teams were spending what was a bit lacking," Sobhan said. "On a weekly cadence, when you just want to know where spend is going, Slash makes it really easy to visualize and figure that out."

The consequences of poor visibility had been painful. "We've definitely run into places in the past where not having tight visibility and controls on cards has led to insane spending. Being able to set clear limits and have observability into spend prevents that type of situation."

One Dashboard, Complete Control

The biggest operational shift happened inside Slash's dashboard. Instead of scattered tools and fragmented data, Bland's operators now have one place where everything connects, from card issuance to spend analytics to the granular oversight necessary for effective financial management.

"Fundamentally, as a COO, the biggest benefit is the amount of observability," Sobhan explained. "I can go into one dashboard, see where all our spend is going, and immediately change limits or set different rules. The feedback loop between amazing analytics and granular spend controls is excellent."

With better analytics informing their controls, and those controls generating new insights, Bland now moves through financial decisions with far more speed and clarity than before.

Why It Matters for AI Companies

AI companies scale in sprints. Spend can swing dramatically week to week as new infrastructure comes online, teams expand, and product iterations accelerate. In that environment, clear visibility and strict controls become essential tools for maintaining financial discipline without sacrificing velocity.

Slash gives Bland:

• Analytics that answer real questions in real time
• Card controls that prevent runaway spend before it happens
• Instant limit adjustments when priorities shift
• Fast onboarding for new employees and functions
• Meaningful cashback without operational friction
• Support from people who respond quickly and understand the product

Building for the Long Term

Bland is building AI phone agents that are hyper-educated, have strict guardrails, and integrate into every part of their tech stack. It's infrastructure designed for enterprise-grade stability and infinite scale. Slash is building financial tools for companies like Bland that move quickly and rely on clarity to maintain efficient operations.

The result is a partnership designed for long-term scale. "We're super happy customers. We really appreciate the product," Sobhan said. "We're really excited to continue growing with Slash."