Financial services provider Brex announced Thursday that it had reached a major milestone. It is currently approved by the European Union. In other words, as co-founder and CEO Pedro Franceschi wrote in a blog post, it is now possible to directly issue spending control products and provide spending control products to all businesses in all 30 EU countries that have “no workarounds required.”
Corporate spending startups previously supported 60 currencies in 200 countries, but only managed to sell their products to companies with a US presence.
With the expansion, Brex is now permitted to sell other tools such as spending control (completing issuance cards) and embedded payments to EU companies and startups. However, there is a warning. Bank and bill payments are not available first. The company hopes to deploy these services in the future.
This is good news for Brex, but it could be good news for European startups too. Brex's claim to fame is to provide employees with startup expense management cards, even if they are not yet qualified from traditional banks. Without bank account availability, the youngest EU startups still need to weigh their options.
Francesci then says he wants to expand the Brex in the UK but does not provide details on these plans.
Francesci said in December that Brex was on track to stop burning cash in 2025, a “significant milestone for future IPOs.”
In February, sources told various news outlets that Brex was on track again this year with revenues of $500 million. This is a shift from the shaky moments of 2023. Brex lays off and reportedly told employees that cash burning was too high. However, there were no hints yet as to when that IPO would occur.
Brex's competitive victory in the international market is due to US fintech competitors taking on an overall moment. RAMP is raising funds from VCs like MAD, earning a $22.5 billion valuation 45 days after the round at a $16 billion valuation. In March, Mercury raised a fresh $300 million, doubling its valuation to $3.5 billion.
Brex has not made public funds for its new equity VC since 2022. This raised $300 million in the Series D-2 round at a valuation of $12.3 billion. However, in March 2024, it secured $260 million worth of debt to help cash-intensive businesses pay, supported by spending management products.