Fintech unicorn Brex, which provides technology solutions for handling corporate finances, has announced a $425 million Series D investment round led by Tiger Global.
The round brings the company's valuation to $7.4 billion, placing it in a leading position in the competitive world of corporate spend companies. Ramp, a rival of Brex, finished a two-part round worth $115 million just a few weeks ago.
Brex evolved from a credit card provider for startups to offering a full suite of technology solutions for businesses of all kinds, including employee and vendor cards and tools for tracking expenses and enforcing spend policies across companies.
"We used to say no to a lot of businesses," Henrique Dubugras, founder and co-CEO of Brex, told Cheddar. "Now we're saying yes."
Mid-sized businesses, however, are still the company's main clientele. To better serve these customers, Brex earlier this week launched an all-in-one dashboard for viewing credit card and cash accounts and managing bill pay software.
“Growing and maintaining a business should not depend on how good a small business owner is at managing their finances,” Cosmin Nicolaescu, CTO of Brex, said in a press release.
Dubugras said the pandemic has done little to hamper that growth area.
"Even though a lot of small businesses have suffered during the pandemic, it created opportunity for a lot more small businesses to be created," he said. "That's a lot of the business that we're serving."
These newer companies, he added, are more inclined to choose online-only solutions to serve their banking needs.
"Traditional mid-market companies... now understand that they need to automate their processes, reduce costs, digitize, and improve employee experience," Dubugras said.
The company plans to spend its new investment on a combination of hiring and product engineering, as well as shoring up its own finances for the future.
"Brex wants to survive any kind of pandemic, any kind of recession, so having a strong balance sheet and just having a lot of money in the bank for anything that might happen is also super important to us," Dubugras said.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
Tesla, the car company run by Elon Musk, reported Wednesday that it sold more vehicles in the past three months after boycotts hit hard earlier this year, but profits still fell sharply. Third-quarter earnings fell to $1.4 billion, from $2.2 billion a year earlier. Excluding charges, per share profit of 50 cents came in below analysts' estimate. Tesla shares fell 3.5% in after-hours trading. Musk said the company's robotaxi service, which is available in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, will roll out to as many as 10 other metro areas by the end of the year.
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