Capital One announced that it has agreed to acquire San Francisco–based fintech company Brex in a $5.15 billion stock-and-cash transaction. Through this deal, Capital One aims to deepen its presence in business payments and expense management while competing more directly with software-led financial platforms.
With this acquisition, Brex will integrate into one of the largest financial institutions in the United States. As a result, the deal highlights the increasing pressure on traditional banks to deliver the speed, automation, and flexibility that fintech firms already offer. “Acquiring Brex accelerates this journey, especially in the business payments marketplace,” Richard Fairbank, Capital One’s founder and CEO, said in a statement.
Previously, in September 2025, Brex revealed plans to introduce native stablecoin payments, starting with USDC. Through this initiative, the company intended to allow customers to pay balances, send payments, and receive funds with automatic conversion into U.S. dollars. According to Brex, this feature enables businesses to manage both conventional and stablecoin-based spending through a unified platform.
Founded in 2017, Brex initially focused on issuing corporate cards to startups that struggled to access services from traditional banks. Over time, however, the company broadened its offering significantly.
“We started Brex in 2017 by inventing a new category of company that brings together financial services and software into one platform,” Pedro Franceschi, Brex’s founder and CEO, wrote on X. “Brex serves tens of thousands of businesses today, from one in three startups in the U.S. to some of the most important enterprises on the planet.”
Subsequently, Brex expanded into expense management, digital banking features, and AI-powered tools designed to optimize corporate spending. Franceschi emphasized that the acquisition reflects a growth-oriented partnership rather than a conventional consolidation.
“This combination is unlike any other bank M&A in history,” Franceschi said. “This story is about growth acceleration and two founder-led companies coming together to bring a better way to manage money to millions of businesses in the mainstream U.S. economy, who are dramatically underserved by traditional banks.”
In parallel, Brex has increasingly positioned artificial intelligence as a foundational layer of its financial platform. The company actively uses AI to categorize expenses, enforce spending controls in real time, and flag anomalies for review. Additionally, Brex provides an AI assistant that automates routine processes such as receipt matching and expense reconciliation.
Although Capital One has not disclosed specific plans to integrate Brex’s AI capabilities into its existing commercial banking products, the company confirmed that leadership continuity will remain intact. Following regulatory approvals, Franceschi stated that he will continue to serve as Brex’s CEO after the transaction closes.
Capital One’s acquisition of Brex marks a significant step in the convergence of traditional banking and fintech-driven innovation. By combining Capital One’s scale with Brex’s software-first, AI-enabled platform, the deal positions both companies to accelerate growth and better serve underserved business customers. As banks increasingly adopt technology-led strategies, this transaction underscores how partnerships between incumbents and fintech firms are reshaping the future of business finance.
