"Pedro and I started working together as co-founders when we were 16 years old, almost 12 years ago." Henrique Dubugras reflects on a partnership that created one of the fastest-growing fintechs in history.

The Origin in Brazil

The duo first built Pagar.me, a payment processing company in Brazil. "We both started coding. Soon, we realized that Pedro was a better engineer than I was, so I started managing everything so Pedro could focus on getting our product up and running."

Their unique Co-CEO structure emerged: "Instead of the traditional split of Co-CEOs responsibilities, we decided to split our duties as external and internal Co-CEOs. The upside is that we had twice as much time as other CEOs."

Solving Their Own Problem

"We realized that there are all these startups that had raised a lot of money but couldn't get a corporate card." At YCombinator in 2017, they pivoted from their original idea to corporate cards for startups.

The Growth Machine

Pedro led the organization to "over 30k customers, from startups to 130+ public companies, with an impressive product suite across corporate cards, banking, expense management, travel, and bill pay."

Meanwhile, Henrique "raised over $1.5 billion for Brex both in primary and secondary transactions."

The Bond Behind the Business

"We built a company together, moved to the US together for college, built another company together, lived together, built a friend group together, and Pedro even officiated my wedding last year."

At peak, Brex reached a $12.3 billion valuation - built by two best friends from Brazil.