SMB Charge Cards: Brex is the new Amex

Is it a coincidence that Brex more or less rhymes with Amex? Probably not. The Brazilian founders, Pedro Franceschi and Henrique Dubugras, don’t miss much. The two fled SF during the pandemic to share a house together in LA.

The startup, launched in 2017, found early product-market fit and has become one of the fintech darlings of the past few years. It’s also had a meteoric rise in valuation, hitting $7.4B in just four years. It’s a ridiculous number for a company with an estimated 20,000 clients ($370,000 per customer) but in a world where jpgs of apes sell for $2.4M who’s to say what’s overvalued.

The Brex card’s unique feature is its high credit limit for startups. The startup underwrites the care, not with credit history, but with cash in the bank. This is great for the venture-backed startups that were its initial bread and butter (especially its fellow YC companies), but not so good for SMB’s with tight cash flow.

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Product line

• High-limit (non-revolving) charge cards (based on bank account balance, not founder(s) personal credit history
• Venture debt financing
• Transaction/checking account
• Money-market account

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Features & Benefits

• Instant payouts from integrations with Stripe, Shopify, Amazon, Square, Paypal
• Free unlimited wires and ACH payments
• Rewards (including crypto options)
• No FX fees (though unclear if it takes a spread on the exchange rate)
• No personal guarantees
• FDIC insured deposits ($250k)
• Modern UI
• Integrations with QuickBooks, Xero and others
• Billpay (including paying invoices via forwarding an email)*
• Spend management software*

*Requires $49/mo premium account

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Partnerships

• Emigrant Bank — Card issuer
• Travel Bank — Travel rewards and bookings