Brex Raises $100 Million At A Reported $2.6 Billion Valuation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 12, 2019
  • Brex, a credit card company that was built for scaling businesses, announced recently it raised $100 million at a reported $2.6 billion valuation
  • Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund led this round of funding

Brex — a credit card that is built for scaling businesses — announced recently that it raised $100 million in funding led by the Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund. Y Combinator Continuity, Ribbit Capital, DST Global, Greenoaks Capital, and IVP also joined the round. This investment reportedly valued the company at $2.6 billion.

Business Insider pointed out that the Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund no longer exists since it was dissolved after the departure of Mary Meeker. But Brex said that Meeker and the Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund team reunited to make the investment due to a provision that was made when they became minority investors in the company at an earlier stage.

Including this round of funding, Brex has raised $315 million in total funding. And a couple of months ago, Brex raised $100 million of debt capital with Barclays in the form of a warehouse line of credit.

This round of funding will be used for bolstering Brex’s product and is considered the only corporate payments solution that can be customized for specific business verticals. And with this round of funding, Brex will be expanding the corporate spend management features and rewards offerings. Plus it will also expand its services to a broader customer audience.

“At Brex, we build corporate payment technology to accelerate entrepreneurs and scaling companies. We recognize that each business is unique and therefore tailor our product to meet their specific circumstances,” said Brex co-founder and co-CEO Henrique Dubugras. “With this new funding, we can deliver relevant and unique financial products to an increasingly broad customer base.”

Dubugras had founded Brex with Pedro Franceschi. The two of them created an online payments processor called Pagar.me when they were teenagers, which was acquired in 2016.

Brex offers a combination of payment terms, underwriting, rewards offerings, and product features to specific customer segments within the business landscape. And Brex is disrupting the financial services industry status quo.

Brex participated in the Y Combinator startup accelerator and accumulated around 1,000 customers during its private launch, according to VentureBeat.

Ever since Brex launched a year ago, the company expanded beyond startups to focus on larger tech companies and e-commerce businesses. And earlier this year, Brex launched a suite of products specifically designed for e-commerce businesses.

And after creating a customized solution that solves many of the industry’s pain points, Brex has brought major online consumer retail brands like Malin + Goetz, Outdoor Voices and Boxed.com on to the platform. With a combination of 60-day payment terms, interest-free financing, and tailored rewards, the Brex ecommerce value proposition has been rapidly adopted in a market that has been ignored by financial services incumbents.

“We are investing behind Brex’s fundamental vision – that businesses want customized payment solutions tailored to their specific needs,” added Mood Rowghani — a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund and the co-founder of Bond. “It is this vision that will continue to propel Brex’s extraordinary growth.”