Steve Singh has launched Center, a Bellevue startup developing hardware and software to track corporate spending.
One financial-software success in a lifetime is not enough — at least not for Concur co-founder Steve Singh.
The executive has launched Center, a Bellevue startup developing hardware and software to track corporate spending. The company has been in stealth mode for more than two years, and on Thursday unveiled its CenterCard product.
It combines a credit card, resembling your familiar corporate card with some enhancements, and cloud-based software that tracks in real-time when a purchase is made with the card. Companies can then easily keep up with and adjust their budgets anytime, without having to wait until the end of the quarter to review costs.
“It’s an intelligent way for people to connect the company strategy to the company budget,” Singh said.
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Center has partnered with Washington Federal and Central Bank of Kansas City to deliver the cards, which will be available in the U.S. this summer.
Signing up for the card will be similar to getting any corporate account, Singh said. This one just also comes with budgeting software that tracks purchases and lets companies increase or decrease budgets on the go.
The card is equipped with a touch screen that lets the holder transfer charges between different business accounts — a specific business trip or customer account, for example. The card will integrate into existing expense systems and automatically record charges.
Singh sold travel and expense software company Concur to German software giant SAP for $8.3 billion in 2014. He continues to serve as Concur’s CEO and as an executive-board member at SAP.
It’s been fun “moving the needle” at a large company, he said, but startups still hold a certain appeal.
“There’s always a thrill that comes with a startup,” said Singh, who is founder and executive chairman of Center. “You get to create a product from scratch.”
Singh has help — former Concur Chief Technology Officer John Love is taking on the same role at Center, and Singh’s son Naveen is heading up product development.
The 38-person company is focusing on small and medium-size companies with its first launch.