Who Is Pedro Franceschi? Brex Co-Founder and CEO Profile (2027)
Pedro Franceschi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Brex, the corporate card and spend management company he started in 2017 with Henrique Dubugras. Brex's announcement of its deal with Capital One names him as the CEO who will keep leading the company, and Capital One's April 2026 completion release calls him Founder and CEO of Brex.
Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, he built the Brazilian payments company Pagar.me as a teenager before going to Stanford and Y Combinator. This page uses public professional information only.
Current role and company
Franceschi is CEO of Brex. Brex's journal post on the Capital One deal says he will continue to lead the company alongside Ben Gammell and the leadership team, and that he reports to Frank LaPrade at Capital One. Capital One's release says the acquisition was completed on April 7, 2026, and that he remains CEO. Brex's author page still describes him as co-founder and CEO.
- CompanyBrex, which sells corporate cards, expense management and real-time payments software (American Banker, April 2026).
- TitleCo-Founder and CEO.
- OwnershipPart of Capital One since April 7, 2026, and operating as its own business per Brex.
Career path
- Rio de Janeiro. Brex's author page says he is a Rio native and, at 13, was the first person in Brazil to jailbreak the iPhone 3G.
- Pagar.me. At 15 he co-founded the Brazilian payments company with Dubugras. Per Brex, it grew to more than 100 people and processed US$1.5 billion in transactions within three years.
- Stanford, 2016. He enrolled at Stanford in 2016 after selling Pagar.me, according to the same page.
- Y Combinator and Brex. He joined Y Combinator's Winter 2017 batch to start Brex, motivated by how hard corporate cards were for early-stage startups to get.
What he is known for
- Building Brex. Brex says it was founded in 2017 and serves tens of thousands of businesses, including about 1 in 3 US startups and over 300 public companies.
- Selling to Capital One. CNBC reported on January 22, 2026 that Capital One would buy Brex for $5.15 billion, half cash and half stock. Brex called it the largest bank-fintech deal in history.
- Global card infrastructure. Brex says its card-issuing infrastructure, built over seven years, powers local cards in 50+ countries.
- AI agents in finance. American Banker lists four Brex AI agents: expense, review, auditing and accounting.
Leadership style and philosophy
These points come from his own writing and interviews. On the Capital One deal he wrote that it is not a story about cost synergies, and framed it as a way to accelerate Brex's mission by over a decade. He told CNBC that Brex did not have to pursue the acquisition because its growth was incredibly strong. In the completion release he said Brex was built on the belief that finance teams should not have to choose between speed and control. In an early post on the Brex blog he wrote that there is no recipe for building a company, and that the founders had scaled from about 50 to 400 people in a year and wanted to share lessons, failures included. A July 2024 20VC episode covers founder mental health, pivoting and what Brex would need to do to go public.
Key numbers
Company-reported or press-reported figures, with the period shown. They are Brex's and Capital One's, not his personal figures.
- Deal value$5.15 billion, 50% cash and 50% stock (CNBC, January 22, 2026).
- Prior valuation$12.3 billion in 2023 (CNBC).
- ClosingApril 7, 2026 (Capital One).
- ClientsAbout 35,000 business clients (American Banker, April 8, 2026); Brex's homepage says 35,000+ companies.
- ReachAbout 1 in 3 US startups and over 300 public companies (Brex, January 2026).
- Integration costCapital One expects to spend nearly $1 billion over three years (American Banker).
What to watch next
Worth tracking: how Brex operates inside Capital One while keeping its own brand and team, and how its AI agents for expenses and accounting develop.
Questions people ask
Who is Pedro Franceschi?
He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Brex, a corporate card and spend management company founded in 2017.
Is Pedro Franceschi still Brex's CEO?
Yes. Capital One's release on completing the acquisition on April 7, 2026 says he remains CEO.
Who co-founded Brex with him?
Henrique Dubugras. They also built Pagar.me together in Brazil.
Who bought Brex?
Capital One agreed in January 2026 to buy Brex for $5.15 billion in cash and stock and completed the deal on April 7, 2026.
Where is Pedro Franceschi from?
Brex's author page says he is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
What did he do before Brex?
He co-founded the Brazilian payments company Pagar.me at 15 and then enrolled at Stanford in 2016, per Brex.
Sources
- Brex: Brex is joining forces with Capital One · Role, reporting line, deal and company figures
- Capital One: completes acquisition of Brex · April 7, 2026 completion, title, quote
- CNBC (January 22, 2026) · Deal terms, 2023 valuation, quote
- American Banker (April 8, 2026) · Clients, integration cost, AI agents
- Brex: authors page · Background, Pagar.me, Stanford, Y Combinator
- Brex: why we started this blog · His own writing on building a company
- 20VC episode (July 16, 2024) · Interview topics
- Brex homepage · Customer count
- Brex press page · Official founder headshot kit
Facts were read from the linked pages on October 31, 2026, partly through a fetch tool that returns summaries, so confirm details on the original pages. The hero photo is Brex's official headshot from its press page. This page covers public professional information only.
Top photo: Brex (brex.com/press)