Brex Enters Corporate Travel Market With TravelBank Collab

Commercial card startup Brex, which recently secured funding that propelled it into unicorn status, is augmenting its platform with the introduction of corporate travel booking capabilities.

In an announcement today (Thursday, Dec. 13), Brex revealed that corporate cardholders will be able to book flights and hotels through the Brex platform, and be able to redeem rewards points when paying for travel. The solution is powered through a partnership with corporate travel and expense management solutions company TravelBank, the company said, adding that users can earn 4x rewards points when they book on Brex Travel, and redeem those points for future business travel.

“Startup founders travel frequently but don’t have time to research travel options,” said Brex Co-Founder and CEO Henrique Dubugras in a statement sent to PYMNTS. “With Brex Travel, we are giving startups access to the same benefits big enterprises experience with traditional corporate card and expense systems, but with integrated modern technology and relevant features.”

“Startups have a disadvantage when booking corporate travel,” added TravelBank CEO Duke Chung in another statement. “They aren’t booking the same volume of flights, hotels and transportation that large companies do, so they don’t always get the attention they deserve, the perks, and the very best rates. We want to fix that.”

In October Brex announced a $125 million Series C funding round valuing the company at $1.1 billion. Greenoaks Capital, DST Global and IVP led the investment, which Brex said at the time would be used to augment its existing offerings as it geared up to introduce its rewards program.

Soon after, the company rolled out that revamped rewards program, targeting spending categories that are key for startups after analyzing the past year of company spend using Brex cards. The company also revealed partnerships with WeWork, Amazon Web Services, Salesforce and Instacart to support its reards program.