Brex, the US spend management platform, will not pursue an all guns blazing approach to cracking the EU market, but will adopt a more measured, partnership-led approach, according to a Brex executive heavily involved in its international plans.
Erica Dorfman, EVP of global financial products at Brex, said: “We are trying to do it in a really thoughtful way, in terms of going in with our partners and going in where we have known demand for the Brex product in the market.
“Our goal is not to sort of jump in with a huge presence and see what money we can light on fire.” Brex made a name for itself selling corporate cards and expense management tools to fast-growing startups. Brex, last valued at $12.3bn in 2022, announced earlier this month that it was launching across the EU, having secured an EU Payment Institution licence.
The licence allows it to sell its corporate cards and spend management products to businesses across the EU. The San Francisco-based startup has set up an office in the Netherlands, where it secured the licence, with a 12-strong team running across sales, operations and customer success.
The fintech said it would start onboarding select EU customers in the coming months, through a phased rollout and expects to be fully up and running in the EU in early 2026. Founded in 2017, Brex started out targeting startups but has since broadened out to larger enterprises, a strategy it will mirror across the EU, says Dorfman. Its clients include over 250 public companies, including Coinbase and Robinhood while Scale AI is also a client.
It says it currently serves 1,500 customers with EU operations but, before securing the licence, Brex could only offer its spend management services to European companies with a US presence. Now it will no longer face that hurdle. Potential European startup competitors could be Spendesk, Pleo, Payhawk and Tradeshift.
Describing the difference between the US and EU market, Dorfman said: “Europe is definitely a very, very different market. And each country in Europe certainly has its own nuances both from an acquisition standpoint as well as what different companies in those markets need.
“There is a lot more fragmentation perhaps in the card market in Europe, but the core needs of the customer, to have a corporate card, to have expense management, to have constant currency where that makes sense, I think are all things that we have seen.”
Nuances in the bloc include on regulation and also on employee spend and employee reimbursement. But Brex is hoping its EU launch will be kick-started by leveraging its partnerships with Navan, the US travel expense startup, and Zip, the US procurement startup.
Dorfman said: “I think as we enter into the market, we are going to be doing so with some of our partners like Zip and Navan, who have customers in Europe who are looking to use our BrexPay for Navan and Brex for Zip which are deep integrations with our product and allow us to serve the companies that they are already marking as customers but who don’t have a corporate card.”
Founded by Pedro Franceschi and fellow Y Combinator alum Henrique Dubugras, Brex’s revenue streams include transaction fees, foreign-exchange fees, and subscriptions. It is reported to hit $500m in annual revenues this year.
Brex, which does not have a US banking licence but partners with a bank, will not be bringing its banking and bill pay services to the EU immediately. But hopes to in the future, pending on licences. The next market Brex is targeting is the UK.
Dorfman adds: “There is a lot of overlap with our existing customer base in terms of types of business.”
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