Capital One, the ninth-largest bank in the US, is vying to jump to the front of the line in payments.
Its planned $35B acquisition of Discover Financial, announced in February 2024, would make Capital One the owner of Discover’s payments network and open the door to more high-spending, low-risk customers. It would also make Capital One the largest card issuer in the US with 19% of the revolving consumer loan market, ahead of current leader JP Morgan Chase’s 16%.
But the online banking acquisition is just the latest step in Capital One’s decade-long tech journey (in fact, its tech focus has ranked it #1 vs. other retail banking competitors in CB Insights’ AI Readiness Index). Much of the work has been inside the company: The bank has rebuilt its internal tech stack, was the first US bank to migrate all of its on-premises data centers to the cloud in 2020, and is making big data more accessible across the company.
At the same time, the bank is using external deals and partnerships to strengthen banking services and integrate more features with its credit cards to keep customers in its ecosystem. Many of Capital One’s transactions have focused on growing its upmarket consumer base.
Using CB Insights data, we uncovered 6 strategic priorities highlighted by Capital One’s acquisitions, investments, and partnerships since Q1’21. We then categorized companies by their business relationships with Capital One across these priorities:
- Banking & payments
- Cybersecurity
- Digital engagement
- Lifestyle & rewards
- Small business tools
- Software delivery
