According to sources familiar with the deal, Brex, a fast-growing fintech company, has raised $300 million to propel it to decacorn status. This is just six months after its valuation of $7.4 billion.
Sources, who requested anonymity because the deal isn't yet public (although a terms sheet has been signed), stated that corporate spend startup Brex was now valued at $12.3 million. Greenoaks is believed to be leading the investment. Return backers may also want more ownership after seeing the success of the business. According to sources, Brex is expected to double its revenue this year.
Both Greenoaks and Brex did not respond to our requests for comment.
After raising a $425m Series D led Tiger Global Management, the San Francisco-based Brex was worth $7.4 Billion in April 2017. It was founded in 2017 by Pedro Franceschi (now in their 20s) and Henrique dubugras (now in their 20s). Crunchbase data shows that the company has raised $1.2 billion in equity and debt financing. This number has risen to $1.5 billion with the latest infusion.
Given its young age, Brex's status as a decacorn is quite remarkable. It is on track to double its revenue by 2021, as we have not yet received hard numbers. TechCrunch was told by the company that it had onboarded thousands of non-tech customers and tech customers in its last raise. However, we don't have any hard numbers.
Over the past year, corporate spend has exploded in significant numbers. Ramp, a spend management startup, announced in August that it had raised $300m in a Series C round funding. The company was valued at $3.9billion. Brex is not only focused on early-stage startups but also more established businesses, particularly those in the midmarket. Ramp is more likely to work with larger and more established businesses. Ramp stated to TechCrunch at the time of the raise that its revenue and transaction volume had risen by 1,000% in the past year.
TripActions announced last week that its pandemic pivot in helping companies with corporate expenses had helped increase its revenue and lifted its valuation to $7.5 Billion. It has also unexpectedly emerged in the corporate spending race. Ariel Cohen, CEO of TripActions, told TechCrunch that he thinks TripActions is different from Ramp and Brex in that both startups are separate from travel and therefore focus more on SMEs, while TripActions focuses more on enterprise companies. Greenoaks was also the leader of that $275 million round.
Brex is also continuing to improve its model. Brex is also continuing to evolve its model.
The Brex API allows developers to create workflows tailored for their company's specific needs.
The company had previously announced that it had created a new service called Brex Premium, which costs $49 per months.
Dubugras said to me that the number of premium subscribers we have now has exceeded our expectations in August.
Brex, a fintech company that applied for a bank charter in February, was the latest.
The company sells a credit-card tailored for startups. Emigrant Bank is currently acting as the issuer.
In August, however, the company stated that it would withdraw its federal deposit insurance and bank charter applications. This was in an attempt to modify and strengthen the application and submit again at a later time.
In August, Brex also acquired Weav (a developer of an API universal for commerce platforms) for $50 million. This was its first major acquisition. According to the company, the move was made to give businesses who use the platform access to financial services and new products faster and more precisely.
