Brex: What It Does, Who Runs It, Funding and News

Brex sells corporate cards and spend management software to businesses, and since April 7, 2026 it has been part of Capital One. Capital One announced the deal on January 22, 2026 at a value of $5.15 billion in cash and stock, and said when it closed that Pedro Franceschi, Brex's founder, continues as CEO.

Y Combinator (YC) lists Brex as "Acquired" and describes it as a company offering business accounts, corporate cards and spend management software (YC company page). This page sets out Brex's basics, its founders and leadership, each funding round it announced, the terms of the Capital One purchase, and its news since mid-2025.

Brex key facts

What Brex does

Brex combines corporate cards, expense management, bill pay, travel and business banking in one platform for finance teams (YC company page). Capital One describes it as an "AI-native software platform" for corporate cards, expense management and real-time payments, and says Brex uses AI agents to automate workflows and reduce manual review (Capital One deal announcement, Capital One closing announcement). Capital One's chairman and CEO, Richard Fairbank, called Brex the first company to put corporate credit cards, spend management software and banking on one platform (Capital One).

Brex started with startups. Its first product, launched publicly in June 2018, gave founders a corporate card without a personal guarantee or deposit (TechCrunch). Customers Capital One named in January 2026 include DoorDash, TikTok, Robinhood, CrowdStrike, Zoom, Plaid, Intel, SeatGeek and the Boston Celtics (Capital One).

Who founded Brex

Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, both from Brazil, founded Brex in 2017. Before Brex they co-founded Pagar.me, a Brazilian payments company that raised $30 million and grew to about 100 staff before it was sold (TechCrunch). YC's page says Stone bought Pagar.me around 2016 (YC company page). The two enrolled at Stanford in fall 2016, joined YC with a virtual reality idea they dropped after about three weeks, and then started Brex (TechCrunch).

Who runs Brex

Pedro Franceschi is Brex's CEO. Brex ran with two co-CEOs until June 2024, when it moved to a single CEO: Franceschi took the role and Henrique Dubugras became chair of the board, with Dubugras saying the co-CEO model had shown "cracks" as the company grew (Banking Dive). Capital One's closing announcement in April 2026 says Franceschi continues as CEO of Brex (Capital One).

Banking Dive reported in June 2024 that Anand had been named Brex's first president. The Capital One announcements name only Franceschi among Brex's leaders, so the roles of other executives after the deal are not covered here.

Who owns Brex

Capital One owns Brex. Capital One signed the merger agreement on January 22, 2026, for $5.15 billion in aggregate consideration: about $2.75 billion in cash and about 10.6 million Capital One shares, subject to adjustments (Form 8-K). The deal closed on April 7, 2026, earlier than the mid-2026 close first expected (Capital One deal announcement, Capital One closing announcement).

The amount paid at closing was lower than the headline figure. Capital One's quarterly filing says Brex shareholders received about $4.5 billion in total, including $2.6 billion in cash and 10.6 million Capital One shares, and that Capital One paid off Brex's $1.1 billion of outstanding debt right after the deal closed (Form 10-Q). Brex's last announced private valuation was $12.3 billion in January 2022 (TechCrunch).

Brex funding history

Brex announced $1.2 billion of venture funding from its founding in 2017 to January 2022 (Brex). TechCrunch's 2019 recap dates the Series A to April 2017 and the Series B to April 2018, without naming the investors who led them.

Other investors in the 2021 round included TCV, GIC and Baillie Gifford, with returning backers Y Combinator Continuity, Ribbit Capital, DST Global, Greenoaks Capital, Lone Pine Capital and IVP (PYMNTS).

Brex news since mid-2025

• August 7, 2025: Brex got a Payment Institution license in the European Union through the Netherlands, letting it issue commercial credit cards and originate payments for companies based in Europe. It planned to onboard customers in phases, fully operating by early 2026, and said it was exploring a separate UK license (Brex).
• September 30, 2025: Brex announced stablecoin payments, so customers could accept stablecoins converted to US dollars, send them from dollar balances and pay card bills with them, starting with USDC (Brex).
• January 22, 2026: Capital One agreed to buy Brex in a stock and cash deal valued at $5.15 billion (Capital One).
• April 7, 2026: Capital One completed the purchase. BofA Securities and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz advised Capital One; Centerview Partners, Wilson Sonsini and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett advised Brex (Capital One).

Earlier, Brex cut 282 jobs, about 20% of its staff, in January 2024, after cutting 136 roles in 2022 (Payments Dive). In June 2024 Franceschi said Brex had halved its cash burn over the previous year and that Brex was aiming for an IPO (Banking Dive).