Brex Lands $2.6 Billion Valuation With Latest Funding Round

(Bloomberg) -- Few companies in Silicon Valley have attained multi-billion dollar valuations as quickly as Brex Inc., the fintech startup whose worth investors now peg at $2.6 billion—just one year after launching its first product.

Brex plans to announce that valuation on Tuesday, along with the news that it has raised $100 million in fresh funding, in a round led by Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund. Other investors in the round include the Y Combinator Continuity Fund, Ribbit Capital and DST Global. Bloomberg reported some details of the funding round last month.

Part of the reason Brex has attracted the attention of tech’s venture firms may be that its core product deals with startups. The company makes a corporate credit card for young companies, determining credit limits based on non-traditional metrics like real-time monitoring of businesses’ bank accounts and transactions. Brex has since expanded into other areas including cards for e-commerce companies and now life sciences companies, which it announced along with the funding.

But Mood Rowghani, the investor who led the round for Kleiner Perkins, said that these services could be just the beginning of Brex’s potential offerings. “Saying they do credit cards for startups today is like saying Facebook is just for people on college campuses,’’ Rowghani said. “Platforms start doing one thing, and then you see a product roadmap starting to evolve, showing what it’s capable of.’’

Besides startup credit cards, Brex has said it also plans to cater to larger companies, and will offer not just cards but expense management and tailored rewards.

Brex last raised money in October. Since that time, its monthly revenue has grown sixfold through May, according to a person familiar with the company’s financials, who asked not to be identified because the details are private. Both the person and the company declined to share revenue totals. Part of the company’s sales growth comes from its new services for e-commerce companies, which include a card with a 60-day interest-free credit line. So, for example, if an e-commerce business spent $500,000 stocking up on products before a holiday, it could pay for those expenses with the credit card, rather than potentially having to apply for a loan.

The e-commerce effort, launched in February, is already close to one-third of the business, said Brex Chief Executive Officer Henrique Dubugras. “It grew much faster than what we expected internally, so I’m hoping life sciences goes at the same speed, but each new vertical is like a new product,” he said.

Dubugras, who said he did not sell any of his shares of the company in this round, also said that Brex’s unit economics are profitable, but that the startup has no plans to turn a profit in the near future as it invests in new verticals and continues hiring.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anne VanderMey at avandermey@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack

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