Brex continues to surprise the fintech world with its strategic partnerships, and this time, it’s teaming up with a former competitor: Zip. The CEOs of both companies revealed the news exclusively to TechCrunch, signaling a bold move in their growth strategies.
Since its founding in 2017, Brex has evolved from a startup focused on providing corporate cards for startups and small businesses to a company aiming to become a comprehensive financial operating system for enterprises. In April 2022, Brex announced a major push into enterprise solutions and software, seeking to diversify its revenue streams beyond just interchange fees. The goal was to generate recurring income through software subscriptions while maintaining its core business.
However, as Brex expanded into the enterprise space, it recognized some limitations in its capabilities—particularly in serving large, complex organizations. According to Chief Business Officer Art Levy, most of Brex’s revenue still comes from interchange fees, though its software offerings are steadily growing.
In a strategic move last fall, Brex partnered with Navan (formerly TripActions) to offer “BrexPay for Navan,” integrating corporate cards with Navan’s travel and expense management platform. This partnership aimed to better serve enterprise clients by combining expense management with payment solutions. The collaboration drew attention because Navan had expanded its services beyond travel into broader expense management, making it a formidable competitor to Brex.
Now, Brex is taking another significant step by partnering with Zip, a five-year-old procurement startup that raised $190 million at a $2.2 billion valuation last October. This new partnership, announced exclusively to TechCrunch, introduces “Brex for Zip,” a product that embeds Brex’s virtual cards directly into Zip’s platform. The goal? Help enterprises streamline procurement and payment workflows, prevent unauthorized spending, and simplify global operations—all with a single card program.
Brex co-founder and CEO Pedro Franceschi and Zip CEO and co-founder Rujul Zaparde explained that the partnership makes sense because both companies serve over 30,000 businesses, with some overlap among their clientele. Notable customers include companies like Anthropic, eToro, BetterUp, Coinbase, Gong, Zapier, and Sephora. Both Brex and Zip are focused on expanding their enterprise customer base, and this collaboration aims to strengthen their positions in that competitive segment.
The results speak for themselves: Brex’s enterprise revenue grew 70% in the first quarter, with net revenue retention surpassing 130%. Meanwhile, Zip experienced its strongest quarter yet, with 155% growth within its strategic enterprise segment. Zip’s clients include OpenAI, Snowflake, Reddit, Discover, and Sephora, showcasing its broad reach in the enterprise market.
The partnership also highlights Zip’s expertise in procurement, which Brex admits is more advanced than what it could develop on its own. Franceschi pointed out that while startups often rely on simple corporate cards, large enterprises require sophisticated procurement workflows—something Zip excels at.
Zip’s boast of “never losing a single enterprise customer” underscores its strong track record in this space. For Brex, partnering with Zip and Navan allows it to focus more on its core strengths rather than investing heavily in building complex products from scratch. This strategy also aligns with Brex’s recent efforts to reduce cash burn: after cutting nearly 20% of its staff in January 2024 and slowing its cash burn rate by 90% year-over-year, the company is aiming for sustainable growth and eventual profitability.
Since inception, Brex has raised over $1.5 billion and reached a peak valuation of more than $12.3 billion in 2022. The company expects to hit $500 million in annual net revenue this year, with a remarkable 154% increase in realized revenue in April. While profitability is still on the horizon, Franceschi emphasizes that Brex aims to go public when the time is right—prioritizing governance and market conditions.
This partnership-driven approach reflects a broader trend in fintech: “coopetition.” Companies like Brex and Zip recognize that collaborating with competitors or complementary startups can accelerate innovation and better serve customer needs. As Franceschi explained, “We asked ourselves, ‘how can we build a deep product integration where one plus one equals five?’ That’s what we’re bringing to market now.”
Ultimately, these alliances are about listening to customers and building solutions that address real pain points. By fostering strategic partnerships, Brex is positioning itself as a versatile, enterprise-ready financial platform—ready to adapt, grow, and lead in an increasingly competitive landscape.
