By Peter Rudegeair
Wall Street Journal
Oct. 5, 2018 8:00 a.m. ET
The College Dropouts Who Rode Credit Cards Into The Billion-Dollar Startup Club
Payments companies are hot, but none are hotter than Brex
“It was early 2017, and Mr. Dubugras and his co-founder, Pedro Franceschi, decided to pivot to a sector they knew well: payments. Their company, Brex Inc., now issues corporate credit cards to other emerging tech companies, embracing a sliver of finance the banks avoid because they believe it to be too risky.”
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Brex Closes $125 Million Series C with Investment from Greenoaks, DST Global and IVP
First Corporate Card for Startups Raises Additional Funds to Enhance Features, Fuel Growth
Business Wire
October 05, 2018 03:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Brex, the first corporate card for startups, announced today the close of a $125 million Series C funding round led by Greenoaks Capital, DST Global and IVP. Building off the momentum from its innovative underwriting and onboarding experience tailored to startups, Brex is further investing in enhancing its features, including its rewards launch later this fall. Starting today, Brex customers that sign up will start accruing points on their Brex corporate card transactions as part of its rewards beta.
We started Brex to provide a superior corporate card to startup founders failed by legacy products,” said Henrique Dubugras, co-founder and CEO of Brex. “With this fresh funding, we are able to enhance our growth efforts and continue to benefit founders and operators, particularly those who are unable or hesitant to personally guarantee their company’s corporate card.”
As the only non-personally guaranteed small business card offering in the marketplace, the Brex corporate card has become a critical part of the stack of solutions that powers startups. Since its June 2018 public launch, Brex has been investing in the core features that drive early stage technology companies to its products: instant online signup, limits 10 to 20 times higher than traditional card offerings and embedded expense and receipt management. Now, Brex will in part use its new funding to offer an ambitious rewards program tailored to the needs and spending patterns of its customers.
“Brex has the opportunity to delight its customers with instant onboarding, seamless expense management and customized rewards programs that are deeply relevant to companies, founders and startups today,” said Greenoaks’ Managing Partner Neil Mehta. “Brex is simplifying financial access for small and medium businesses beginning with startups. We are delighted to partner with Henrique and the Brex team as they build the next generation of credit card products,” added DST Global Managing Partner Saurabh Gupta. “Brex is off to one of the most exciting starts we’ve ever seen due to a combination of exceptional products, viral adoption by the target customer base and missionary founders focused on building for the long term,” added IVP’s Somesh Dash.
