Brex and Zip Team Up to Serve the Enterprise - Even If It Means Partnering with Rivals
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
Brex, once laser-focused on startups, is doubling down on enterprise by partnering with Zip, a fast-growing procurement startup. The two FinTechs, which together serve over 30,000 businesses, including OpenAI, Coinbase, Zapier, and Anthropic, are launching a new product: “Brex for Zip.” It embeds Brex’s virtual cards directly into Zip’s procurement workflows to streamline spending, prevent unauthorized expenses, and simplify global operations.
This marks Brex’s second “coopetition” move, following a 2023 partnership with Navan, another former travel and expense space rival.
“We asked ourselves, ‘how can we build a deep product integration where one plus one equals five?’” said Pedro Franceschi, Brex co-founder and CEO. Zip CEO Rujul Zaparde added: “It was just a very natural partnership… the customer base pulled it out of us.”
While Brex’s software ambitions have grown, it’s clear the company realized it couldn’t do it all in-house, especially for complex enterprise procurement needs, where Zip is further ahead.
The partnership comes amid a broader strategic shift at Brex, including a 20% reduction in headcount, a focus on cutting cash burn (down 90% year-over-year), and plans to become profitable by year’s end. Despite burning $17M/month in late 2023, Brex now expects $500M in annual net revenue and is still keeping IPO plans on the table, for when the time is right.
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INSIGHTS
📊 Islamic finance hits $3.88tn, but growth depends on digital upgrades, study finds. The newly released 2025 IFSI Stability Report by the Islamic Financial Services Board, titled “Navigating Shallow Waters: Addressing Structural Vulnerabilities and Shoring Up Resilience to Global Shocks,” offers both a status check and a forward-looking roadmap for the sector in an increasingly digital world.
FINTECH NEWS
🇰🇷 Bithumb claims larger slice of Korea’s crypto space ahead of IPO. Bithumb’s resurgence comes as it prepares for an initial public offering expected to take place by the end of 2025. The company has prioritized wrestling trading activity away from Upbit through aggressive marketing tactics.
🌍 eToro launches recurring buy feature for stocks, ETFs, and crypto. The new functionality enables users to schedule automated purchases of stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies at predetermined intervals, removing the need for manual order placement.
🇨🇳 Ant Group’s global unit pulls in US$3 billion in revenue ahead of spin-off. It has also produced two consecutive years of adjusted profit. The international unit could fetch an initial public offering (IPO) valuation of anywhere between US$8 billion to US$24 billion if it were to list in Hong Kong.
🇦🇪 Mashreq rolls out API Marketplace to support digitalisation. The API Marketplace rolls out several features, including automated developer registration, real-world case studies, and a flexible subscription model, focused on fostering development via a more agile and collaborative digital ecosystem.
🇩🇪 YouLend has entered a strategic partnership with eBay Germany to offer sellers fast, flexible access to capital, called eBay Seller Capital. The new solution allows sellers to access up to €2 million without decision uncertainty, lengthy applications, or long waiting times due to YouLend’s direct integration into the eBay platform.
🇺🇸 Block leans into lending after winning direct loans approval. The approval will roughly double the number of Cash App active Block users who can offer loans by enabling the company to offer Borrow in more states, the CEO said on the company’s first quarter earnings call earlier this month.
🇺🇸 Rippling wants to use Revolut data in a US espionage case against Deel. The commercial division of the High Court heard today that Revolut is intending to take a neutral position on US HR giant Rippling’s request for an order to disclose information to it, meaning it will neither agree to nor contest the order.
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇬🇧 Triple shortlisting for Ecommpay at PayTech Awards 2025. The company has earned recognition in the categories of Best Consumer Payments System, Best Solution for Combatting Fraud in Payments, and Woman in PayTech – Marketing Leader. The 2025 winners will be announced during an exclusive ceremony that last year attracted over 200 industry leaders and decision-makers.
🇺🇸 Papaya Global launches the first enterprise platform for managing and paying global contingent workers. The new platform connects the dots between vendor management systems, payroll compliance, invoice verification, and instant global payments, enabling true end-to-end orchestration for contingent workforce programs at scale.
🇬🇧 Mastercard is paying out millions in compensation to customers after a landmark legal battle. Customers will be entitled to a compensation payout worth up to £70 each. The move comes after a long-running case that was put forward almost a decade ago.
REGTECH NEWS
🇺🇸 ACI Worldwide recognized as a leading provider of fraud orchestration solutions by Datos Insights. The report spotlights ACI’s Payments Intelligence Framework for its unique visibility across the payments ecosystem, proven scalability with major global financial institutions, real-time processing capabilities, advanced model management, and highly flexible deployment options.
🇺🇸 Stablecoin fight heads to showdown as Senate democrats splinter. The Senate is poised to advance industry-backed stablecoin legislation in a key vote, with a group of crypto-friendly Democrats seeking to end their party’s blockade of one of President Donald Trump’s top priorities.
🇮🇳 ZikZuk receives in-principle approval from the RBI for issuance of prepaid payment instruments (PPIs). With this strategic approval, ZikZuk is set to enter India's dynamic digital payments space with powerful prepaid wallet and card-based payment offerings.
🇺🇸 Robinhood’s RWA proposal could bring Wall Street on-chain. RWA tokenization is projected to become a $30 trillion market by 2030. This surge is driven by rising institutional interest in on-chain financial products, offering faster settlement, greater transparency, and broader asset access.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇳🇱 Qonto is launching POS terminals, tap to pay, and payment links. Qonto partnered with Adyen for its POS terminals and Tap to Pay solutions, and with Mollie for its Payment Links offering. This strategic expansion marks Qonto's evolution from a business finance leader to a complete financial management one-stop shop, addressing one of the most pressing needs faced by European SMEs today.
🇨🇭 Temenos launches Gen AI Copilot to accelerate banking innovation. It provides a simple, conversational way for products to explore the full breadth of Temenos’ core banking functionality and data insights, helping banks design and launch retail products faster and more easily and making them more relevant to their customers.
🇩🇪 Dutch Government cuts ABN Amro Holding to below one third. The move means the state loses the right to prior approval of capital hikes or substantial deals carried out by ABN Amro. Read more
🇰🇷 K Bank falls behind Kakao and Toss amid shrinking profits and crypto risk. In terms of net profit, the gap between K Bank and KakaoBank has continued to widen, and it has even fallen behind Toss Bank, which does not offer mortgage loans.
🇦🇺 Westpac to cut more than 1500 jobs in the biggest cut in a decade. The overhaul involves transforming the business by simplifying its processes and technology under a plan known as Unite. It comes after the appointment of Anthony Miller as CEO in who has already made significant changes to the executive team.
🇬🇧 Chase to launch its first-ever credit card next month. The launch will follow some changes to its savings account and popular current account. Last week, Chase cut the interest rate on its boosted savings account, meaning savers can now only earn up to 4.5%.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇺🇸 Circle denies report it’s considering a potential sale. A media report stated that it was in informal talks about a potential sale to Coinbase Global or Ripple while still pursuing the initial public offering. The Circle spokesperson said, “Circle is not for sale. Our long-term goals remain the same.”
🇺🇸 Binance Strikes back at FTX’s $1.76B ‘baseless’ lawsuit and seeks dismissal. This lawsuit goes back to a 2021 deal where FTX bought back a 20% stake it had previously sold to Binance. FTX now claims it was already insolvent at the time and used customer funds to finance the buyback.
🌍 Kraken launches a regulated futures offering, strengthening market-leading position in the region. Clients and partners in the European Economic Area can now trade a full suite of crypto derivatives, including both perpetual and fixed maturity contracts.
🇫🇷 French banking giant Société Générale to launch bank-issued dollar stablecoin on Ethereum. The move would make Société Générale the first global banking group to issue a dollar stablecoin on a public blockchain. It also plans to expand the stablecoin to other networks, including Solana, after the initial launch.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇸🇨 KuCoin Pay integrates with AEON to revolutionize Web3 mobile payments in retail. Through this integration, KuCoin Pay users can seamlessly pay for goods and services across a wider range of real-life scenarios using leading cryptocurrencies such as USDT, USDC, ETH, TON, and BNB.
🇮🇹 Finom integrates F24s to simplify tax payments for Italian entrepreneurs. Their BaaS allows F24 forms to be filled out and sent within Finom's platform, eliminating the need to juggle multiple systems for taxes and contributions. The feature enables various payments, including income taxes, VAT, social security contributions, and local taxes.
🇬🇧 Payabl. taps ClearBank for embedded finance services. Through this collaboration, payabl. now provides businesses with seamless access to all major UK payment schemes, enabling real-time transactions in GBP. The integration also strengthens fraud prevention with Confirmation of Payee (CoP).
🇸🇬 StraitsX teams up with Ripple to launch XSGD stablecoin on XRP Ledger. The deployment brings XSGD to a blockchain designed for large-scale tokenisation, enabling real-time payments and programmable financial flows for developers, FinTechs, and institutions.
🇧🇬 Bulgaria's CC Bank and MeaWallet partner to launch Click to Pay. CC Bank customers will be able to add their cards to Click to Pay directly from their banking app upon completion of the integration. Keep reading
🇬🇧 UK’s Moneycorp selects Temenos SaaS to scale global business. The UK headquartered payments and FX specialist will adopt Temenos SaaS for core banking and payments to achieve speed to market and scale efficiently as it expands products and services around the world.
🌍 Visa enables Click to Pay on UEFA ticketing platforms. Fans will be able to purchase UEFA Women’s Football tickets using Visa Click to Pay, which offers a seamless and secure online ticket purchasing experience for fans eager to support their teams.
🇺🇸 Brex partners with former competitor Zip, with an eye on reducing cash burn to get to an IPO. The new offering embeds Brex’s virtual cards directly into Zip’s platform to give enterprises “the ability to streamline procurement and payment workflows, prevent unauthorized spend before it happens, and simplify global operations with a single card program.”
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇬🇧 UK-based Ontik raises €3.2M to help wholesalers replace spreadsheets with automated payment tools. The company looks to replace these manual processes with digital tools, beginning with industries where extended payment terms are standard.
🇦🇹 Vivriti Asset Management raises $20 Mn from the Development Bank of Austria. The platform focuses on investing in asset-backed securities that are backed by granular retail and MSME loans, thereby supporting NBFCs and other financial institutions serving underserved borrower segments.
🇮🇳 PaySprint to raise $3 mn to expand financial API solutions for businesses. It will utilise the freshly raised capital in boosting its product portfolio, expanding AI capabilities, and talent acquisition. Continue reading
🇺🇸 True Markets raises $11 million and launches new Solana-focused crypto trading app. It is launching a trading app this week targeted at retail customers, which will allow users to buy and sell tokens based on the popular Solana blockchain, and soon other top cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
🇺🇸 Slash just raised $41 million. The startup will use the funding to expand its business, providing specialized financial services as a neo-bank. This means offering a limited array of banking services without the overhead of physical branches or a full-blown bank license.
🇺🇸 Circle cofounder raises $18 million to build ‘AI-native bank’. Sean Neville has a new venture that aims to capitalize on the AI boom. He announced that his startup, Catena Labs, which he said plans to build an “AI-native bank,” had raised $18 million in a seed round.
🇦🇺 Securely Group launches USD 6 million Series A funding. The funding round is led by RSB Capital, and the money is to be used for accelerating global growth, expanding commercial licensing opportunities, and investment in new technologies.
🇨🇦 Keep raises C$108m to transform small business banking in Canada. This investment will accelerate Keep's mission to solve critical cash flow and operational challenges faced by Canada’s 3 million small businesses. Continue reading
M&A
🇪🇬 EFG Finance approves acquisition of Fatura by MaxAB-Wasoko. With Fatura fully integrated into the MaxAB-Wasoko platform, retailers will immediately benefit from a broader, more comprehensive product assortment, critical in a fragmented supply chain environment where no single distributor can meet all retailer needs.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇬🇧 SumUp hires former Mangopay CGO Pierre Lion as Global Director of Enterprise Sales to expand its enterprise offering. He will be responsible for the growth of the FinTech’s enterprise solutions. Pierre joined SumUp in March 2025 and will be based out of its London headquarters.
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