“Can DAF giving be turned into a one-click payment option and become the default financial infrastructure for the $326B donor-advised fund market?”
Chariot was founded in 2022 by Salo Serfati, Aaron Kahane and Drew Schneider (YC-backed) to build a DAF payment option — 'DAFpay' — so donors could give from Donor-Advised Funds as easily as with a credit card. It has since evolved from a single payment option into a broader financial infrastructure layer for the nonprofit sector, adding a Chariot Deposit Account (via Column N.A.), Gift Processing to unify offline gifts, and Disbursements for grant payments. Not to be confused with the earlier Chariot commuter shuttle startup acquired by Ford in 2016 — that is a distinct company.
Chariot discloses Column as its banking provider, with Column N.A. as its sponsor bank, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Chariot does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Column N.A..
Chariot processes payments through Stripe. Disclosed money-movement rails: ACH.
Chariot integrates with QuickBooks, Salesforce, Raiser's Edge, Blackbaud, Bloomerang, Virtuous and DonorPerfect.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 5 layers in Chariot's stack: Payments / PSP (Stripe); Money movement (ACH); Banking / BaaS (Column); Sponsor bank (Column N.A.); Accounting (QuickBooks, Salesforce, Raiser's Edge, Blackbaud and 3 others).
Chariot was founded by Salo Serfati, Aaron Kahane and Drew Schneider and is founded in 2022, headquartered in New York, NY.
Chariot has raised $15.1M in total.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Chariot and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.