Brex

Brex sells corporate credit cards, spend management software and cash management accounts to businesses, starting with venture-backed startups that had capital but little credit history and later moving toward larger companies. It was founded on January 3, 2017 by Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, Brazilian entrepreneurs who had earlier built and sold the payments company Pagar.me. The pair entered Y Combinator's Winter 2017 batch with a virtual reality idea and pivoted to finance a few weeks in. The company was based in San Francisco, went headquarterless in 2021, and later leased new space in the city.

Ribbit Capital, led by Micky Malka, led a $7 million Series A shortly after founding, and Malka sat on the board from the start. A $50 million Series B followed in June 2018 with Y Combinator Continuity, Ribbit, Peter Thiel and Max Levchin. In October 2018 Greenoaks Capital, DST Global and IVP led a $125 million Series C at a $1.1 billion valuation, bringing total funding to about $200 million. Kleiner Perkins led a $100 million round in June 2019 at a $2.6 billion valuation, with DST Global, IVP, Y Combinator and Greenoaks participating. In May 2020 existing investors including DST Global and Lone Pine Capital added a $150 million Series C extension. Tiger Global led a $425 million Series D in April 2021 at a $7.4 billion valuation, and in October 2021 Brex signed a term sheet for $300 million at a $12.3 billion valuation, reportedly led by Greenoaks.

Brex exited the small business segment in June 2022 to focus on larger customers, cut about 20% of staff in January 2024, and won a license to operate in the European Union in August 2025. On January 22, 2026 Capital One agreed to acquire Brex for $5.15 billion in stock and cash, and its April 7, 2026 filing confirmed the deal closed for about $2.56 billion in cash plus 10,646,306 Capital One shares. Franceschi continues to lead Brex inside Capital One. Before the sale Brex had raised about $2.3 billion in equity.

The outcome splits the cap table by entry point. The sale price was less than half the $12.3 billion peak, so later investors such as TCV, GIC, Baillie Gifford and others who bought at $7.4 billion or above saw a modest result. Ribbit, the company's largest shareholder, and the seed and Series A backers entered at a small fraction of that price, and TechCrunch estimated the earliest stake multiplied roughly 700-fold. The roughly nine years from YC batch to acquisition show how much of a venture return is set by the entry valuation rather than the peak mark.