Abstract We report the discovery of the 1.008-day, ultra-short period (USP) super-Earth HD 213885b (TOI-141b) orbiting the bright (V = 7.9) star HD 213885 (TOI-141, TIC 403224672), detected using photometry from the recently launched TESS mission. Using FEROS, HARPS and CORALIE radial velocities, we measure a precise mass of 8.8 ± 0.6M⊕ for this 1.74 ± 0.05R⊕ exoplanet, which provides enough information to constrain its bulk composition — similar to Earth’s but enriched in iron. The radius, mass and stellar irradiation of HD 213885b are, given our data, very similar to 55 Cancri e, making this exoplanet a good target to perform comparative exoplanetology of short period, highly irradiated super-Earths. Our precise radial velocities reveal an additional 4.78-day signal which we interpret as arising from a second, non-transiting planet in the system, HD 213885c, whose minimum mass of 19.9 ± 1.4M⊕ makest it consistent with being a Neptune-mass exoplanet. The HD 213885 system is very interesting from the perspective of future atmospheric characterization, being the second brightest star to host an ultra-short period transiting super-Earth (with the brightest star being, in fact, 55 Cancri). Prospects for characterization with present and future observatories are discussed.