← State of Embedded Finance 2026

Backdrop

Can a purpose-built expense management platform become the financial operating system for entertainment production companies?

Founded2023
HQSan Francisco, California, USA
Latest roundPre-Seed, April 2023
IndustryVertical SaaS / Film & TV Production
The story

Founded in 2023 as Twig with Y Combinator backing, the company quickly rebranded to Backdrop and pivoted to serve the Film, TV, and Music production industry with expense management tooling. The embedded finance angle centres on automating AP/payments workflows for production companies — evidenced by its adoption of Mercoa, a bill payments and AP automation infrastructure provider. The company is early-stage (Seed/Pre-Seed) with a tight focus on a niche vertical.

Last 12 months
Product timeline
2023
Founded as Twig; raised Pre-Seed from Y Combinator in April 2023.· pivot
2023
Rebranded to Backdrop (formerly Twig), focusing on expense management for Film, TV, and Music production.· pivot
The stack
Accounting gap: none