Brex, a corporate card and financial product startup, is shifting the rewards points on its credit cards to better accommodate clients’ needs during the coronavirus pandemic.  

“We have a lot of real-time data in terms of customer spending,” said Michael Tannenbaum, chief financial officer at Brex. “We looked through what we saw there, and we identified where customers have increased their spending.” 

As the pandemic restricts travel and in-person meetings, the needs and spending habits of Brex’s startup clients are rapidly changing. The company’s clients are now spending more on tools to work remotely — like Zoom and Slack — and Brex’s technology allows the company to shift its rewards quickly to better meet clients’ needs. 

Brex underwrites its corporate cards using cash flow, venture capital funding, sales volume and cash burn rates. The company doesn’t charge interest, instead making money from interchange fees. Brex launched a cash account called “Brex Cash” in October and has raised $315 million in equity to reach a reported valuation of $2.6 billion since its 2017 founding. 

According to Tannenbaum, the company is seeing a 50% week-over-week increase in certain spending categories since the pandemic. With the new points system, Brex startup clients earn 7 cents on the dollar for spending on remote collaboration tools like Zoom, Slack, GoToMeeting, Gong and Monday. Clients get 3 cents on the dollar for food delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats; 2 cents for recurring software; and 1 cent for everything else. The rewards can be applied to the Brex card statement credit or travel and, although Tannenbaum said travel spending is down right now, clients are still booking future trips. 

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The new points system is available to Brex’s startup clients, but not e-commerce and life sciences clients. Tannebaum said life sciences companies generally spend more on lab supplies, a category not as affected by coronavirus. Brex is also offering credits of up to $100,000 on Amazon Web Services, a discounted three-month starter package for a DashPass subscription, 25% off Slack for one year and half-price annual subscriptions for Dropbox Business. While the AWS discount is only available to companies that have raised more than $1 million, the other discounts are available to all clients. 

“The Brex card is not for every business,” wrote Dia Adams, a Forbes Advisor who focuses on credit cards and travel rewards, in a recent post. “But for the slice of the business market that Brex caters to, the option to shift reward towards categories that fit the moment is a win.”  

Brex faces competition from other fintechs, like Stripe, and incumbent payment companies, like American Express. In October, Amex announced a series of card perks designed to appeal to startups. “Some of the newer competitors in this market have yet to go through a recession. American Express has a diversified business, has experienced many business cycles and understands the risks of lending to businesses of all sizes,” Jim Miller, vice president of banking and credit card practice at J.D. Power, previously told Bank Innovation. 

Brex, meanwhile, spent a year and a half building its technology before the company launched, which Tannenbaum said helps it accommodate clients’ needs as they change.  

“It all comes back to the technology,” Tannenbaum said. “We built our rewards and underwriting from scratch. We have a nimble system that allows us to change multipliers.”