Company profile
- Industry
- Financial services
- Founded
- 1994
- Headquarters
- McLean, United States
- Ownership
- Publicly traded
Profiles are auto-generated and infrequently updated.
The analyses
The Adjacency Expansion · Growth & Portfolio
Capital One's $35.3 Billion Discover Deal Is a Bet on Owning the Rails
Capital One paid $35.3 billion for Discover, and everyone called it the biggest credit-card lender play in America. It was really a bet on owning the rails — a network that carried just 4% of U.S. card purchase volume in 2023.
8 min
The Money Machine · Business Model
Capital One's Machine Began Inside Signet Bank, A/B-Testing 40,000 Mailers a Year
The founding myth says Capital One was born in 1994. The real machine started six years earlier, inside Signet Bank, as a way to A/B-test 40,000 mailers a year and profit on the borrowers prime banks wouldn't touch — a model that amplifies losses as readily as gains.
8 min