Short Description
Brex partners with procurement startup Zip to embed virtual cards, streamlining enterprise spend management and fueling growth for both fintechs.
Read Time: 4 minutes, 30 seconds
Main Article
Brex, the fintech giant once synonymous with startup-focused corporate cards, is doubling down on a new strategy: partnering with former competitors to conquer the enterprise market. In an exclusive reveal to TechCrunch, Brex CEO Pedro Franceschi and Zip CEO Rujul Zaparde announced a deep integration embedding Brex’s virtual cards directly into Zip’s procurement platform. This move, following a similar partnership with travel-and-expense leader Navan last fall, signals a pragmatic shift for Brex as it prioritizes sustainable growth and sharpens its focus on enterprise customers.
The partnership, dubbed “Brex for Zip,” aims to streamline complex spend management workflows for large companies. The integration provides controlled spending within approved procurement channels, preventing unauthorized purchases. For Brex, this acknowledges that Zip has built a superior, enterprise-grade procurement solution—a capability Brex found challenging to develop alone. This humility is strategic. While Brex’s software revenue is growing, the majority still comes from interchange fees, making efficient market expansion crucial. Meanwhile, Zip, valued at $2.2 billion, brings its own impressive enterprise roster, including OpenAI and Snowflake, creating significant cross-selling opportunities.
This model of “coopetition” reflects a broader trend in fintech, where building everything in-house is often less efficient than integrating best-in-class solutions. For Brex, these partnerships also align with its public efforts to reduce cash burn—a goal Franceschi says is paying off, with Q1 burn down 90% year-over-year. As both companies report explosive growth in their enterprise segments, this collaboration strengthens their value proposition for sophisticated clients like Anthropic, Coinbase, and Carta, proving that in today’s market, strategic alliances can be more powerful than going it alone.
Short Summary
Brex’s partnership with Zip marks a strategic pivot towards cooperative growth in the enterprise fintech space. By integrating Brex’s virtual cards into Zip’s procurement software, they offer a unified spend management system for large companies. This move highlights a trend of fintechs prioritizing best-in-class integrations over solo development to better serve enterprise customers, reduce costs, and accelerate expansion.
