We are increasing our commitment to startups

Since we announced that Brex is joining forces with Capital One last week, I’ve heard from founders, investors, and friends across the startup ecosystem. Most are excited, some are curious, and a few have questions.

I get it. When founders hear “acquisition” and “big bank” in the same sentence, they assume things might slow down, Brex could lose what made it Brex, startups might stop coming first.

So I want to take a moment to explain why this deal is unlike any other bank M&A in history. The reality is that this deal makes Brex better for startups and every customer across the board.

Impact of new investments for startups

For startups on Brex, this deal means you have a partner that’s more committed than ever and a product that works harder than ever.

Starting immediately and ramping through 2026, we’re increasing headcount on our Startups teams by 50%. Capital One is also investing $950 million into Brex, making Brex the most well-funded player in our space. That combination lets us move faster and go deeper on founders’ real needs. Shipping more quickly, extending credit more confidently, and building the financial platform startups rely on from day one through scale.

Just as important, our focus does not change. Startups still come first. Our roadmap stays startup-led, because they helped us build the future of finance first. I'll continue to lead the company as founder/CEO, my leadership team will remain the same, and we’ll pursue our same mission — now with dramatically more resources, speed, and scale.

Capital One is not your typical bank

What many don’t realize is that Capital One started the same way Brex did: as a founder-led bet. When building Capital One, CEO Richard Fairbank believed technology could fundamentally change how credit worked, and he built a generational company around that conviction.

Today, Capital One is the only founder-led company among America’s largest banks, with a deep commitment to technology and innovation that’s rare in financial services. They saw in Brex a shared founder mentality, a deep love for startups, and a proven ability to move fast.

They recognized that we understand founders better than anyone in the market and have built the strongest startup-focused team in financial services. To them, Brex is the best way to serve the next generation of high-growth companies.

They believe in what we’re building and are investing to help us scale it. Their internal directive for supporting Brex was explicit: “Don’t crush the butterfly.”

Why Brex did this deal: pure acceleration

This deal builds on what we’ve created with founders and accelerates everything that comes next.

Over the last two years, our team reaccelerated Brex, breaking growth records, shipping faster, and reaching new highs in NPS and customer satisfaction. That momentum gave us the opportunity to ask ourselves, what would we build if we could operate with unconstrained ambition?

The answer was simple: We’d build a version of Brex so great that it becomes a permanent part of the U.S. financial system for startups, from day one to the day they become generational companies. But to do that, we needed to remove any tradeoffs between speed and safety, innovation and scale. Capital One allows us to do exactly that.

Their investment accelerates our roadmap by years. It gives us more capital to extend credit, more engineers to improve the product for you, and more runway to keep building through cycles. Instead of choosing between moving fast and building something durable, we get to do both.

How we’re executing on that focus

With this investment, we’re accelerating the work that matters most to founders.

That includes moving faster on AI and agents to eliminate finance busywork so founders can focus on building, improving banking so Brex is the place you run payments and AP from day one, and making our corporate cards even easier with faster onboarding and less friction.

At the same time, some things are not changing, because continuity matters.

The answer to “What’s in your wallet?” will still be “a Brex card.” Capital One has a track record of preserving independent brands and products after acquisitions, including Discover, which continues to operate as its own network. Brex will remain Brex.

Our Essentials plan stays free, and your startup rewards, from billboards to offsites to cash back, stay the same. We’ll retain control over our product and startup strategy. Our roadmap will stay on course, now with all gas and no brakes.

Founder events will continue, even more often. And our support team, with a 95% satisfaction rate, remains available 24/7 in all the same ways as before.

Built by founders, for founders

I started Brex in 2017 because my co-founder and I lived the problem ourselves. Traditional banks saw startups as risk, not opportunity. We built Brex to change that, with no personal guarantee, up to 30x higher limits, and approval in minutes. We went on to build a complete financial stack now trusted by one in three startups in the U.S.

This deal does not change that founder DNA. What changes is the scale at which we can operate and the speed at which we can move.

Come build with us

If you’re building a startup and looking for a financial partner who actually understands what that journey feels like, I’m here and the Brex team is too. We’ve been in this with founders from day one, and now we have even more ways to support you as you grow.

If you’re around, come say hi at one of our events or join me [@pedroh96] on X for an AMA this Friday, January 30 at 10am PT. I’d love to hear what you’re building, answer questions, and talk through how we can help.