Brex is a San Francisco corporate card and spend management company founded in January 2017 by Brazilian entrepreneurs Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi. It sells charge cards, expense and bill pay software, travel booking and business cash accounts. Capital One acquired Brex for $5.15 billion in a deal that closed on April 7, 2026, and Franceschi remains CEO.
What does Brex do?
- Corporate cards: physical and virtual Mastercard charge cards with limits based on company cash and financials, with no founder personal guarantee, issued locally in more than 50 countries.
- Spend software: Brex Empower handles budgets, approvals, reimbursements and receipt matching. Brex Essentials is free; Brex Premium costs $12 per user per month.
- Business Account: a cash account with deposits held at partner FDIC-insured program banks and a money market sweep run by Brex Treasury LLC.
- Bill pay and travel: vendor payments and policy-controlled travel booking, plus BrexPay for Navan.
How does Brex make money?
Most revenue comes from interchange on card spend. Sacra estimates Brex collects about 2.7% of card volume and keeps roughly 65% gross margin after partner costs. Software subscriptions, fees on customer cash and bill pay transactions make up the rest.
How much revenue does Brex make?
Brex did not publish audited results as a private company. Sacra estimates annualized revenue was $312 million in 2022 and $700 million in August 2025, up 50% year over year. Brex said its enterprise revenue grew 80% in 2024, and Sacra reports it became operating-cash-flow positive in October 2025.
Who founded Brex?
Dubugras and Franceschi began working together on Pagar.me, a Brazilian payments processor, at 16 and sold it to Stone in 2016. Both enrolled at Stanford, then joined Y Combinator's Winter 2017 batch with a virtual reality startup. Three weeks in, they switched to building a corporate card for startups, having struggled to get one themselves without US credit history.
How did Brex's valuation change?
Brex reached $1.1 billion in October 2018, $2.6 billion in June 2019, $7.4 billion in April 2021 and $12.3 billion on a $300 million round agreed in October 2021. It raised about $2.3 billion in equity in total. Capital One's $5.15 billion price was about 58% below the peak.
What changed in 2022 and 2024?
In 2022 Brex launched Brex Empower, bought Pry Financials for $90 million and stopped serving traditional small businesses to focus on startups and enterprises. In January 2024 it cut 282 jobs, about 20% of staff, and in June 2024 ended its co-CEO model, making Franceschi sole CEO and Dubugras chairman.
Who owns Brex now?
Capital One announced the acquisition on January 22, 2026, paying roughly half in cash and half in stock, and completed it on April 7, 2026. Brex keeps its brand and leadership. Franceschi reports to Capital One executive Frank LaPrade, and Capital One said it would invest $950 million in Brex.
Who are Brex's competitors?
Ramp is the closest rival and, by Sacra's estimates, now larger at $1 billion of annualized revenue. Brex also competes with American Express and bank commercial card programmes, SAP Concur and Navan in travel and expense, and Mercury for startup bank accounts.
