Ernd, a Y Combinator Fall 2026 company, is taking early-access requests for a credit card that returns 4% on spending at AI vendors including OpenAI and Anthropic, according to its website. The San Francisco startup's pitch is that pooled buying power from many young companies can win better AI pricing and capacity than any single customer could, though the company's own pages disagree on some of its reward rates.
The card is aimed at US companies with heavy API bills. Ernd calls it "the credit card for the AI stack." Its homepage said: "We negotiate partnerships with AI providers to get better pricing and capacity. Card spend at AI vendors earns 4% back."
How the card works
The FAQ describes "a credit card for US companies that pay for AI, paid off once a month." Requesting a card is free, and the FAQ said there is no annual fee. Any US company can ask for access on a first-come, first-served basis, although the site does not guarantee that a card will be issued.
Applicants must submit the company's legal name, EIN, state, revenue and cash estimates, expected card spend, and details on any owners with stakes of 25% or more.
Rewards, and where the pages conflict
The FAQ puts the terms plainly: "You earn 4% back at every AI vendor, including OpenAI and Anthropic. Payments to Superserve, Conifer and AgentPhone each earn 5%. Everything else earns 1.5%."
Other pages tell a different story. The partners page says card spend earns "at least the standard 1.5% back everywhere" and cites "Superserve's 5% back." The dedicated Superserve page, however, says: "Card spend at Superserve will earn 4% back for now. All other card spend will earn the standard 2% back."
The base rate therefore reads 1.5% in some places and 2% in others, and Superserve appears at both 4% and 5%. Separately, the YC directory text promises "up to 6% back on AI spend and 2% on everything else." The rewards terms, last updated Oct. 27, list 4 points per dollar for OpenAI and Anthropic and 5 for Superserve, but include no explicit base-rate table. The copy may well be in flux.
The fine print
The terms carry several limits. "OpenAI and Anthropic do not run, sponsor or endorse the program," they say. Only spending billed in US dollars earns points, and the OpenAI and Anthropic promotion "is funded by ernd from a set budget and can change or end."
Points on OpenAI and Anthropic spending are tracked from paid receipts or invoices, which a member uploads or ernd detects through a connected inbox. One restriction cuts against the headline offer: "charges paid to OpenAI or Anthropic cannot be paid back with points."
Points instead redeem as cash back against a charge paid to an ernd partner, such as Superserve, or toward business travel booked by ernd. Travel redemptions are valued at 100 points per $1, per the terms.
Partners and perks
The site lists Firecrawl, which offers 2x usage limits; Superserve, at 4% to 5% back depending on the page; Conifer and AgentPhone, at 5% back each; EigenPal, at 5% on certain products; and Osto, which offers a free security stack to the first 100 cardholders. The homepage also pitches "priority GPU and inference capacity," along with help managing vendors and booking travel.
According to the YC directory text, ernd "onboarded 10 startups and landed 5 vendor partnerships" in its first 48 hours. That figure is the company's own claim and could not be independently verified.
The team
The YC directory lists three people. Chief executive Connor Dawson is a former employee of Bridgewater's AIA Labs and is on leave from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies computer science and math. The directory says he built "a profitable forecasting system run by AI agents."
Chief technology officer Nikhil Ruia previously worked on data infrastructure at IMC Trading and on Ripple's stablecoin team, and did RLHF (reinforcement learning from human feedback) research at Wharton. Chief operating officer Malcolm Wengel founded an investment fund focused on distressed industrial acquisitions and co-founded ARCodeKids, which raised nearly $600,000, including $100,000 from Microsoft Philanthropies.
The rewards terms define "ernd" as Provenance Research Inc.
What remains undisclosed
None of the pages reviewed names an issuer, card network or bank partner. No press release turned up, and it was not possible to determine whether ernd is issuing cards now or working through a waitlist. No funding beyond YC has been publicly disclosed, and a search of public SEC EDGAR pages found no Form D, the notice companies file when raising money privately, tied to Provenance Research Inc. or ernd. MentionFox's tracker shows ernd was added to the YC F26 batch on Oct. 29.
A crowded field
The niche for AI-spend cards is filling up. Meow's marketing says its cards earn 2.5% cash back on eligible AI spending. Slash's blog cites up to 1.5% on its Free plan and up to 2% on Pro, for general eligible spending.
Code_ shows 5% back on OpenAI API usage in its product materials and runs a waitlist. Emiral Money advertises up to 5% back on AI spending for a business card that is not yet available. Agentcard (YC S26) launched rewards for purchases made by AI agents, RuntimeWire reported July 17.
Ernd's 4% on OpenAI and Anthropic sits above the general rates at Meow and Slash. The catch is that its points cannot be redeemed against those vendors' bills.
Anyone weighing the card may want to check back for an issuer announcement or a Form D filing around YC Demo Day, set for Dec. 2, 2026.
