Brex

Brex builds B2B financial products, including a corporate card for technology companies.

Brex was founded by Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, two engineers who previously founded Pagar.me. Brex is backed by the co-founders of PayPal, Max Levchin and Peter Thiel, Y Combinator, Ribbit Capital, Yuri Milner, and Carl Pascarella, the former CEO of Visa.

Brex does not require companies to personally guarantee their credit cards, nor do they require proof of cash flows, a security deposit or a FICO credit score for approval. Rather, Brex uses a companies banking information to underwrite their cards. This way, cash-rich companies, or startups who have received a lot in funding, can receive a card, which they can divvy up amongst their employees and set custom limits per card per employee.

In February 2019, Brex and MasterCard announced Brex would begin issuing World Elite MasterCards for Business, and would upgrade current cards to the same program. This included an enhanced rewards structure and travel benefits. This announcement went in conjunction with Brex's launch of fraud protection technology, including "no questions asked" fraud support.

Part of their credit offering, Brex included an expense management software, which analyzed spending by vendor and allowed users to text images of their receipts in reply to expense notifications.

Brex charges 5 dollars per card, after five authorized cards, per month and makes money through transaction fees. They don't charge interest as the cards balance has to be paid in full at the end of the month. And there is no annual fee.

Essentially their initial product, Brex's startup focused offering includes rewards focused on the needs and spending patterns of startups. The card balance must be paid off a the end of each month, or else it is cancelled.

Similar to the Brex for startups card, the Brex for ecommerce is different in that it offers users 60 days to pay their balance in full, rather than the 30 offered on their traditional card.

The Brex for Life Sciences offers companies operating in the theater of the Life Sciences to earn specific rewards. Otherwise, the card is the same as the Brex for startups.

Launched in 2019, Brex Cash is a product designed to replace a traditional bank account. A business cash management account integrated with the Brex card, Brex cash allows customers to send payments with no transaction fees while earning rewards redeemable for cash back, travel or air miles.

Brex Cash offers a 1.6% yield on deposited money, which is achieved through Brex using the money to purchase securities in US Treasuries and low-risk commercial paper. When the customer withdraws cash, Brex then sells the shares of those securities for the requisite amount.

The account is protected by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which protects brokerage accounts up to 500,000 dollars and specializes in protecting customers from the loss of cash and securities.

In May 2021, Brex announced the launch of the first crypto rewards programs for corporates.

The offering allows Brex’s customers, notables include Airbnb, Classpass, and startup accelerator Y Combinator, will be able to exchange Brex reward points for Bitcoin and Ether the same way they would redeem them for miles, gift cards, cash, or travel.

Brex’s rewards partner is TravelBank, will power the zero-fee rewards redemption program, allowing users to input the amount of points, they want to redeem for crypto that can then be transferred to a cryptocurrency wallet

In March, 2017, Brex graduated from Y combinator with 120,000 dollars in funding for its Seed round.

In April, 2017, Brex held a Series A round of financing which raised 6.5 million dollars. Investors included Y Combinator and Ribbit Capital.

Announced in April 2018, Brex raised 50 dollars million in their Series B funding. Y Combinator Continuity fund led the funding round, which included participation from Ribbit Capital, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Chase Coleman and Carl Pascarella.

Brex raised 125 million dollars in funding in October 2018. The round was led by GreenOaks Capital and DST Global. Other investors included RIbbit Capital, Y Combinator, Peter Thiel, Mindset Ventures, Larry Summers, Justin Mateen, Jaws Ventures, IVP (Institutional Venture Partners) and Greyhound Capital. The post-money valuation of Brex was $1.1 billion.

In April of 2019, Brex announced 100 million dollars in debt financing raised from Barclays Investment Bank.

Brex announced 100 million dollars funding in a Series C extension round in June 2019. Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund led the round with participation from Y Combinator Continuity fund, GreenOaks Capital, IVP (Insititutional Venture Partners), Ribbit Capital and DST Global. Brex's post-money valuation was 2.6 billion dollars.

In March of 2019, Brex announced their acquisition of Elph. He was a San Francisco-based startup who built digital payment infrastructure on blockchain technology. They specialized in tools for developers to accept cryptocurrency payments and for consumers to store, manage and transact their cryptocurrency.