Brex vs Mercury

Brex is a US spend management company founded in 2017 by Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi and based in San Francisco. It combines corporate cards, expense management, reimbursements, bill pay, travel booking and business accounts in one platform, with the aim of replacing expense reports and manual card reconciliation.

Cards carry real-time controls: budgets per team, project or vendor, merchant restrictions and approval chains. AI matches receipts, flags policy issues and suggests accounting codes that sync to ERPs such as NetSuite, QuickBooks and Xero. The Essentials plan is free and covers cards, expenses and bill pay; Premium adds advanced policies, travel and approvals for a per-user fee; Enterprise supports multiple global entities, local cards in many countries and custom controls.

Brex fits venture-backed startups and mid-market or enterprise companies with US entities, especially those with employees or subsidiaries abroad. Eligibility rules apply, and in 2022 Brex stopped serving many small businesses without venture funding, so very small companies may not qualify. Ramp is the closest rival and is often preferred for its free automation and savings tools; Navan combines travel and expense; Airbase served mid-market finance teams before Paylocity bought it. In practice Brex and Ramp are close, and the decision often comes down to global needs, ERP integration and the offer you receive.

In January 2026 Capital One agreed to acquire Brex for about $5.15 billion, with Pedro Franceschi continuing to lead the business.

Mercury is a US financial technology company, founded in 2017 and based in San Francisco, that provides business banking for startups and online businesses. Mercury itself is not a bank: accounts are held at partner banks, and deposits can be swept across a network of banks to extend FDIC insurance well beyond the standard limit for a single bank.

The free core product includes checking and savings accounts, physical and virtual debit cards, a corporate credit card, domestic and international wires, ACH transfers, invoicing, bill pay and an API for automating finance. Mercury Treasury invests idle cash in money market funds for yield, and the paid tiers, Mercury Plus and Mercury Pro, add advanced bill pay, reimbursements and dedicated support. Onboarding is online and fast, and many founders outside the United States use Mercury for a Delaware company formed through services such as Stripe Atlas.

Mercury fits venture-backed and bootstrapped startups with a US entity that want a modern interface and an API. It only serves US-registered companies, cash deposits and some traditional banking services are limited, and as a fintech it depends on its partner banks. Brex and Ramp focus more on spend management and corporate cards, Relay offers many sub-accounts for profit-first budgeting, and traditional banks provide fuller lending relationships for companies that need credit lines.