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Banking giant on Thursday that it is acquiring fintech startup for $5.15 billion in a cash and stock deal.

The news was big in the fintech world with Brex claiming the pairing would represent 鈥渢he largest bank-fintech deal in history.鈥� ( had planned to buy in 2020 for $5.3 billion until that deal fell apart a year later due to regulatory concerns.)

In a joint statement, Capital One founder, chairman and CEO said it’s always been a goal of the bank 鈥渢o build a payments company at the frontier of the technology revolution.鈥�

鈥淎cquiring Brex accelerates this journey, especially in the business payments marketplace,鈥� he said. 鈥淏rex invented the integrated combination of corporate credit cards, spend management software and banking together in a single platform. They have taken the rarest of journeys for a fintech, building a vertically integrated platform from the bottom of the tech stack to the top.鈥�

While $5 billion is no small sum, it is less than half the that San Francisco-based Brex was valued at in October 2021. In total, the company has raised $1.7 billion in equity and debt since its 2017 inception 鈥� with about $1.2 billion of that being venture funding.

Early investors such as , which led Brex鈥檚 in 2017, are likely quite pleased with the outcome. Investors who wrote checks at its later stages are likely less so.

Other early backers include , and 1听.

The company has 1,100 employees, according to a Brex spokesperson who also told 附近上门 News that its business is growing 40% year over year and is profitable. Customers include , , , , and , among others.

Brex will continue to operate largely independently with co-founder continuing to lead as CEO.

Close friends Franceschi and , who co-founded Brex, started working together when they founded another company, Brazilian payment processing startup , in 2012 at the wee age of 16. That company ended up getting acquired by Stone Pagamentos for 鈥渢ens of millions of dollars鈥� 鈥� before the two had even gone to college.

A change of plans

Brex began its life as a buzzy startup that served mostly other startups. But in June 2022 鈥� three months after announcing it would make a into software and enterprise 鈥� Brex confirmed that it was apparently it started to serve: small to medium-sized businesses.

The abrupt news didn鈥檛 sit well with many of the SMBs it served.

Over time, Brex began to seemingly fall behind its largest rival, , when it came to fundraising and revenue generation. Ramp as of last November was valued at $32 billion, having raised a total of $2.3 billion in equity.

By joining Capital One, Brex says it will accelerate Capital One鈥檚 presence in corporate cards and spend management, complementing its existing leadership in SMB banking.

Capital One鈥檚 purchase of Brex is slated to close midyear.

Fintech M&A expected to pick up

On the heels of a strong year for venture funding to fintech startups, sources who spoke with 附近上门 News said they expect exits 鈥� both M&A deals and IPOs 鈥� in the sector to gain steam in 2026.

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• Fintech Ramp Now Valued At $32B After $300M Raise Led By Lightspeed
• Fintech Funding Jumped 27% In 2025 With Fewer Deals But Bigger Checks
• Fintech Forecast: Momentum Builds With Big Deals, IPO-Ready Companies And More AI

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