Brex was founded by
Brazilian entrepreneurs Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi on January 3, 2017. They had previously founded an online payments company, Pagar.me, before selling it to Stone. Brex began as a
VR startup; however, the founders pivoted the company to
fintech three weeks into
Y Combinator's 12-week accelerator program. In February 2021, the company announced a submission application with the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions (UDFI) to establish an industrial
bank named Brex Bank, a wholly owned
subsidiary of Brex. According to
TechCrunch, the subsidiary appointed a former
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) executive as CEO. In April 2022, Brex launched Brex Empower, a financial software platform to help people comply with their employers' expense policies. In June 2022, Brex exited the
small and midsize businesses (SMB) market, shifting the company's focus to serving enterprise customers. In August 2022, Brex named Doug Adamic as the company's new
chief revenue officer. According to
CNBC, Brex received billions of dollars in deposits from SVB customers on March 9, 2023—a day prior to
SVB's collapse. The following year,
CNBC ranked Brex fourth on its 2024
Disruptor 50 list. In January 2024, Brex announced that it was laying off 300 of its employees, or roughly 20% of its workforce. The company cited slowing growth as a reason for the decision. In January 2026,
Capital One agreed to acquire Brex in a transaction valued at approximately $5.15 billion, structured as roughly equal parts cash and stock. The purchase price represented a significant discount to Brex's peak private valuation of $12.3 billion in 2022. The deal was expected to close in mid-2026, subject to regulatory approvals.
Investors Brex Inc. investors include
Peter Thiel,
Ribbit Capital,
Y Combinator,
DST Global,
Kleiner Perkins,
Lone Pine Capital, and Greenoaks. == References ==