- General
- May 29, 2019
- 5 minutes read
Brex Reportedly Raising Funding At $2 Billion Valuation
Kleiner Perkins chairman John Doerr. VC firm Kleiner Perkins is said to be leading the new round for Brex. It’s…
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| Kleiner Perkins chairman John Doerr. VC firm Kleiner Perkins is said to be leading the new round for Brex. It’s also reportedly leading a round for Chicago based startup Cameo that’ll value it at $300 million.
image: UNLV Photo Services / Geri Kodey
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Brex — a B2B payments startup that creates corporate cards, rewards, and travel programs for startups and small businesses — is close to raising new funding at a valuation north of $2 billion according to a Bloomberg piece. This is up from a recent $1.1 billion valuation Brex hit after just two years in existence. Bloomberg says Kleiner Perkins is expected to lead the round, with participation from existing investors IVP, DST Global and Greenoaks Capital.
Negotiations for the deal are still on-going and may be subject to change. Brex has raised $315 million in total funding, inclusive of a $100 million debt facility from Barclays Investment Bank. Brex hit a $1.1 billion valuation October last year after closing $125 million in Series C funding led by Greenoaks Capital, DST Global and IVP.
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| PayPal co-founder Max Levchin is an investor in Brex. Levchin also heads Affirm, another payments company valued at $2.9 billion
image: Hubert Burda Media / Picture Alliance
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The Y Combinator incubated startup was launched in 2017 by the founders of Brazilian payments processor Pagar.me, Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi. Other investors in the company include Ribbit Capital, PayPal co-founders Max Levchin and Peter Thiel, and Y Combinator Continuity.
Brex is serving a niche market, corporate cards for startups and small businesses typically avoided by big payments companies due to volatility. The company works around this by setting limits to how much customers can hold in their accounts. Because so many startups fail or get acquired, Brex has to put in place and monitor cash requirements for its customers.
In fact, co-founder Henrique Deubugras said at a conference in April said the company has already axed the cards of hundreds of business because they no longer met such requirements.
