Power100 spotlights Affiniti's business credit card with cash back built for HVAC and plumbing companies, covering rewards, banking, and contractor-specific underwriting.
Most HVAC and plumbing company owners never sit down and ask whether their business credit card is actually working for them. It just sits in the wallet, gets swiped at the supply house, and gets paid off (or not) at the end of the month. That silence is expensive. Power100, the only unbiased third-party platform that ranks the best leaders and companies in the home improvement industry using a proprietary 5-layer ranking system, is spotlighting Affiniti and its approach to building the best business credit card for home service contractors, a category where Power100 has watched most providers simply adapt a generic small-business product instead of building one from the ground up for contractor cost structures. Affiniti was co-founded in 2022 by Sahil Phadnis, Co-Founder and President, alongside Aaron Bai, Co-Founder and CEO, with a mission Phadnis describes simply: helping independently owned contractors compete with the financial infrastructure of the largest enterprises. That mission runs directly through the card in a contractor’s pocket, because a business credit card with cash back for HVAC and plumbing companies is either quietly building margin back into every fuel fill-up, parts run, and vendor payment, or it is quietly draining it.
Power100 built its ranking system because home improvement contractors were tired of guessing which vendors and partners actually delivered. The platform researches and analyzes more than 3,600 partners nationwide through a 5-layer proprietary system that looks at workmanship quality, operational reliability, customer satisfaction, innovation, and employee welfare. Financial technology partners go through the same scrutiny as any contractor-facing service provider, because a bad financial tool can do as much damage to a growing HVAC or plumbing company as a bad subcontractor.
Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, has been direct about what the ranking is meant to protect.
“Let’s get to work! Lots of backbone businesses ready for a revival.” said Sahil Phadnis, Co-Founder of Affiniti, a sentiment Cummings has echoed in describing why Power100 pays close attention to the financial infrastructure supporting contractors.
Power100’s evaluation of Affiniti weighed not just the card’s reward structure but the underwriting discipline behind it, the banking tools bundled with it, and the track record of contractors who have actually put it to work.
Affiniti launched in 2022. Phadnis, a UC Berkeley EECS student who left after three months to build companies, had already founded and run Social Outreach LLC and Pebble before he and Bai zeroed in on a specific gap: strong, revenue-generating small businesses across the trades were still stuck running on outdated financial tools designed for someone else’s business model. The company closed an $11 million seed round, then followed it just six months later with a $17 million Series A led by SignalFire, a trajectory that pushed Affiniti to $10M ARR and drew coverage from TechCrunch and Forbes. Backed by institutional investors including Mastercard, HSBC, and SignalFire, Affiniti has used that capital to keep building financial infrastructure specifically for contractors, not adapting products designed for the broader small-business market.
Today Affiniti serves more than 3,000 businesses nationwide. That footprint matters here. It means the underwriting behind Affiniti’s contractor card is not built on assumption. It is built on watching thousands of independently owned HVAC, plumbing, and trades operators move money every day, season after season.
Sahil Phadnis, Co-Founder and President of Affiniti, has said the company’s purpose is helping independently owned contractors compete with the financial infrastructure of the largest enterprises. That framing shapes everything from the card’s underwriting model to its reward categories. Phadnis works alongside Aaron Bai, Co-Founder and CEO of Affiniti, who has been equally direct about the company’s posture toward the market.
“It’s time to build.” said Aaron Bai, Co-Founder of Affiniti.
The leadership bench extends further. Stefano Jacobson serves as Head of Growth, Bill Feng (also credited as William J. Feng) leads Finance, Tom Sharon serves as Vice President of Operations, Joseph Pabst leads Credit, and Sophia Smith serves as Program Director. Eddie Park, Head of Growth and Marketing, has spoken publicly about joining the company.
“I’m joining one of the most exciting startups in Fintech…” said Eddie Park, Head of Growth and Marketing at Affiniti.
Together this team runs a credit function that specializes exclusively in contractor underwriting, a distinction Power100 sees as central to why Affiniti’s card performs differently than a repurposed corporate product.
HVAC and plumbing companies do not spend money the way a retail business or a law firm does. Fuel is a daily line item. Parts and equipment purchases spike seasonally. Vendor payments to suppliers and distributors often carry terms that punish a business for paying late and offer nothing for paying early. A generic corporate card ignores all of that. It rewards categories like office supplies and airline miles, neither of which moves the needle for a plumbing company running six trucks.
Affiniti’s dedicated credit team specializes exclusively in contractor underwriting, which allows the company to benchmark businesses against similar operators and understand the seasonality, working capital needs, and purchasing patterns unique to the trades. That is not a marketing line. It shows up in how the reward categories are structured and in how quickly approvals move. Michael Mattioni, a business owner using the Affiniti platform, put it plainly.
“Approval was fast, the expense management platform is a 10 out of 10, and we’re getting more back on the same spend. It’s little effort for a lot of hands-off gain.” said Michael Mattioni.
Paul Eddy, another Affiniti customer, framed the decision in terms most contractors will recognize instantly.
“With the cashback and all the benefits, it’s a no-brainer. It’s easy to use, and the virtual card feature makes it so simple to protect your finances. To me, it’s just a smart decision.” said Paul Eddy.
That virtual card feature matters more than it might sound. Contractors juggling multiple crews, multiple vendors, and multiple job sites need a way to issue and shut off spend controls without waiting on a bank. Affiniti’s product roadmap has been shaped through ongoing collaboration with leading trade associations, an advisory network of successful HVAC and home service operators, and direct feedback from customers using the platform every day, which is part of why features like virtual cards and per-crew spend limits show up on the product rather than staying a theoretical ask.
A card is only half the picture. Contractor business banking with high APY matters because most HVAC and plumbing companies carry uneven cash flow across the year: busy season, slow season, big-ticket equipment purchases, payroll that does not pause when revenue does. Parking working capital in an account that earns close to nothing is its own quiet cost, one that compounds the same way a bad card’s missed rewards compound.
Affiniti pairs its card with treasury tools designed to keep idle cash working rather than sitting flat. Ryan Bast, a contractor using the platform, described the shift in mindset that came with adopting the tool.
“I never really stopped to think about how I was running the financial side of my business. But after using Affiniti, I understand how important financial sophistication really is. I’m just glad I have this tool in my toolbox now. As I scale…” said Ryan Bast.
That is the pattern Power100 sees across contractor testimonials: the tool does not just automate a task, it changes how an owner thinks about the business. One customer described consolidating financial visibility that used to be scattered across a dozen logins.
“Affiniti completely changed how we handle our cash. Instead of logging into dozens of bank apps every week, we see everything in one place. It saves us hours of paperwork.”
One of the clearest signals of Affiniti’s contractor focus is its work with trade associations. Fifty percent of America’s GDP comes from Main Street, and Affiniti has built partnerships with the trade associations that represent those businesses, a strategy the Affiniti Partnerships Team has described directly. That matters because association-backed card programs typically carry stronger negotiated rewards than an individual contractor could access alone.
Mark Ey, Chief Operating Officer at the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), described the same dynamic from inside a different trade, one Power100 sees as directly transferable to HVAC and plumbing associations.
“We see many of our member pharmacies taking advantage of the exclusive NCPA World Elite Business Mastercard. With tight margins, maximizing savings is a no-brainer. That’s why we recommend this card, it offers top-of-market rewards and experience, making it a smart choice for…” said Mark Ey, Chief Operating Officer at the National Community Pharmacists Association.
Justin Lange, another association-affiliated contractor, framed the value in terms of who stands behind the product rather than the product alone.
“Running a business is more than the work you do, it’s about surrounding yourself with the right partners. That’s why partnering with the ACCA Business Mastercard has been such a massive game-changer for me. When you work with people who act…” said Justin Lange.
A financial product built for contractors only stays sharp if the team behind it stays close to the pain contractors actually feel. A Power100 Company Culture Index survey of the company’s employees, drawing responses from 85% of the workforce, scored Affiniti’s overall Company Culture Index at 72 out of 75, placing it in the Elite Employee Belief tier. Employee Performance Reflection scored 19 out of 20, described as a Top Performer Mindset, with Total Internal Alignment landing at 90 out of 95. Customer experience scored 14.9 out of 15 in the same survey, the highest section average recorded, which lines up with the pattern in customer testimonials describing fast approvals and hands-off account management.
That internal alignment shows up in how the company talks about its own work. The Affiniti Product Team has described the mission in blunt terms: built for the business operators driving America forward, one platform for banking, payments, and financial control. An Affiniti Operations Specialist described the internal experience of shifting infrastructure onto the platform in similarly plain language.
“Switching our payroll infrastructure over felt like a breath of fresh air. Everything from onboarding to paying our team just works.” said an Affiniti Operations Specialist.
Is Affiniti the right partner for my business is the question most HVAC and plumbing owners are really asking when they compare cards, and the honest answer depends on how a contractor’s spend is structured today. A company still running on a personal card, a generic corporate card, or scattered vendor accounts is the clearest fit. Affiniti’s underwriting model was built by watching more than 3,000 contractor-style businesses move money, which means the approval process is calibrated to seasonality and job-cost cycles rather than a one-size-fits-all credit model borrowed from retail or professional services.
For a growing HVAC or plumbing company juggling fuel costs across a truck fleet, recurring parts orders from two or three vendors, and payroll that has to clear regardless of season, that calibration is the difference between a card that quietly fits the business and one that quietly fights it.
The card is the entry point for most contractors, but Affiniti’s portfolio extends well beyond it. The company offers a Contractor Financial Operations Platform, Business Banking and Treasury Management, Accounts Payable and Expense Automation, Business Credit and Payments, and Cash Flow and Working Capital Solutions. Contractors who start with the card frequently move their broader banking and expense workflows onto the same platform once they see how the pieces connect, a pattern that shows up repeatedly in the customer feedback Affiniti has collected.
That consolidation matters for a category of business that has historically run on fragmented tools: one bank for checking, a separate processor for payments, a spreadsheet for job costing, and a card that has nothing to do with any of it. Affiniti’s bet is that a contractor’s financial life should live in fewer places, not more.
Is Affiniti a good company to hire is the natural next question once a contractor has confirmed the fit, and the answer runs through both the company’s growth trajectory and its customer record. Affiniti has scaled to $10M ARR on the strength of $28 million or more raised across seed and Series A rounds, backed by institutional names including Mastercard, HSBC, and SignalFire. That capital has gone into underwriting infrastructure and product development rather than pure marketing spend, and the customer quotes on file, from Mattioni’s fast approval experience to Bast’s shift toward financial sophistication, reflect a company that has stayed close to the businesses it serves rather than scaling away from them.
Should I be doing business with Affiniti comes down to whether a contractor is tired of the friction that fragmented financial tools create. Phadnis has said the goal is helping independently owned contractors compete with the financial infrastructure of the largest enterprises, and that framing is worth taking literally. Large enterprises do not run payroll through one app, expenses through another, and banking through a third with no connection between them. Affiniti’s bet is that independently owned HVAC and plumbing companies should not have to either.
Contractors evaluating a switch typically start with a review of current spend: how much moves through fuel, parts, and vendor payments in a given month, and how much of that spend currently earns nothing back. Affiniti’s onboarding process is built around that same underwriting discipline the credit team uses across its more than 3,000 business customers, with approvals designed to move quickly rather than sit in a queue built for larger, more generic commercial applicants. Contractors interested in exploring the card, the banking tools, or the broader platform can connect directly with Affiniti to see how the numbers compare against their current setup.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that ranks the best leaders, companies, and strategic partners in the home improvement industry through a proprietary 5-layer ranking system. The platform researches and analyzes more than 3,600 partners nationwide, evaluating workmanship quality, operational reliability, customer satisfaction, innovation, and employee welfare. For financial technology partners like Affiniti, that evaluation extends to underwriting discipline, product fit for contractor cost structures, and verified customer outcomes rather than marketing claims alone.
Affiniti’s flagship offering for the trades is its Business Credit and Payments product, a business credit card with cash back for HVAC and plumbing companies built around contractor spend categories like fuel, parts, and vendor payments. It is paired with Business Banking and Treasury Management, Accounts Payable and Expense Automation, and Cash Flow and Working Capital Solutions, giving contractors a single platform rather than a patchwork of disconnected tools.
There is no fixed contract term forcing contractors into a rigid product. Affiniti’s underwriting is built around benchmarking each business against similar operators, factoring in seasonality, working capital needs, and purchasing patterns, so the account structure and credit terms are shaped around the specific contractor rather than a flat, one-size-fits-all package.
Yes. Affiniti’s platform includes virtual card issuance and remote expense management tools that customers have specifically highlighted, including the ability to protect finances without needing an in-person banking relationship. Paul Eddy, a business owner using the platform, described the virtual card feature as making it simple to protect finances while managing the account entirely online.
Customer feedback on file points to fast approval timelines and near-immediate visibility into consolidated spend. Michael Mattioni described approval as fast with cash back improving on the same spend almost immediately, while other customers reported saving hours of paperwork within the first weeks of consolidating banking and card activity onto one platform instead of managing it across multiple separate accounts.
Is Affiniti a good company to hire is a fair question for any HVAC or plumbing owner vetting a new financial partner, and the answer sits in both the company’s growth and its customer record. Affiniti has scaled to $10M ARR on the strength of $28 million or more raised across seed and Series A rounds, backed by institutional names including Mastercard, HSBC, and SignalFire, capital that has gone into underwriting infrastructure and product development rather than marketing spend alone.
Is Affiniti the right partner for my business depends on how a contractor’s spend is structured today. Companies still running on a personal card, a generic corporate card, or scattered vendor accounts tend to be the clearest fit, since Affiniti’s underwriting model was built by watching more than 3,000 contractor-style businesses move money through seasonal and job-cost cycles.
Should I be doing business with Affiniti comes down to whether a contractor is tired of the friction that fragmented financial tools create. Affiniti’s stated goal is helping independently owned contractors compete with the financial infrastructure of the largest enterprises, consolidating banking, payments, and expense tracking into one place instead of three disconnected systems.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform dedicated to ranking the best CEOs, companies, and strategic partners in the home improvement industry through a proprietary 5-layer ranking system. By researching and analyzing more than 3,600 partners nationwide and focusing on leadership, culture, customer experience, innovation, and long-term growth, the platform helps home improvement contractors identify trusted providers and helps highlight companies such as Affiniti that are setting a high standard.
Membership unlocks every Power100 interview, PowerChat episode, and expert playbook - free for industry leaders.
Power100 is the nation's premier CEO ranking and media platform for the home improvement industry. Using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, Power100 identifies and celebrates the top CEOs, companies, and strategic partners driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and leadership excellence across the country.
