News Summary

  • Business-to-business (B2B) card company Pex announced on Tuesday that it has secured $160 million in debt and equity financing from a private equity firm to help expand its commercial card and spend management services. A Pex spokesperson said the company declined to disclose the specific split between debt and equity.
  • The investor is Bluff Point Associates, a firm focused on investing in fintech and healthtech companies. New York City-based Pex announced the news in a press release.
  • Pex will use the investment to accelerate product innovation and invest in sales, partnerships, and strategic growth, according to the press release. Pex founder and CEO Toffer Grant said in the release: "For too long, complex financial tools have been reserved for large enterprises. We are changing that by integrating payments, credit, spend management, and automation into one platform, helping businesses operate with greater control and confidence."

In-Depth Analysis

Pex stated in the press release that customers increasingly need "integrated solutions rather than fragmented financial tools." According to the release, Pex is building "a platform that combines payments, spend management, credit, and financial automation."

According to Crunchbase data, Pex has raised approximately $180 million in equity and debt funding since 2010.

Pex is a B2B spend management platform focused on small and medium-sized businesses, serving industries including construction, nonprofits, business services, and media and entertainment, Grant wrote on his LinkedIn page.

Pex began operations in 2009, issuing prepaid corporate charge cards to small businesses, the CEO wrote in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday. The company said it has managed approximately $11.7 billion in corporate spending during that time.

Grant said that experience with prepaid cards prepared Pex to integrate all payment, card, and spend services for corporate clients. Pex's card products include prepaid cards, charge cards, payment cards, and virtual cards.

He added that two years ago, when "customers wanted spend controls that prepaid balances could not provide," Pex added credit cards to its product portfolio. Pex's credit products offer weekly or monthly repayment cycles.

Bluff Point, headquartered in Westport, Connecticut, seeks businesses with "strong customer retention, recurring revenue characteristics, and clear competitive advantages," the firm's CEO Tom McInerney said in the press release.

Pex says on its website it has approximately 10,000 customers, including live event ticketing company Live Nation, consumer goods supplier Tory Burch, and emergency response and cleaning company Servpro.