Capital One acquires a concierge service to enrich its card universe

Capital One has just announced that it has acquired a high-end British concierge service called Velocity Black. This acquisition is part of a broader strategy by the leading credit card bank in the United States to open up to extra-financial services.

FACTS

• Since 2014, Velocity Black has offered a high-end concierge service based on a mobile app. Attesting to exceptional growth, the company offers travel planning, entertainment, shopping and restaurant reservation services, available from a conversational interface, which enables simplified and fluid exchanges.

• To deliver an optimized offer, Velocity Black relies on an alliance between digital technologies and human expertise. Advisors work continuously to select service providers and partners. Velocity Black provides users with personalized recommendations and planning tools. 

• Although it has not yet defined its ambitions for integrating the service into its offering, Capital One emphasizes that the Velocity Black service should enable it to enhance its customers' experience in the future.

• Operating from the UK, the service is available in some sixty countries.

CHALLENGES

• Optimizing its card ecosystem through extra-banking partnerships: Capital One has long since created a comprehensive network of extra-banking services through multiple acquisitions or partnerships. Its integration of Velocity Black confirms this strategy, by facilitating access to its various offers acquired or developed in collaboration over the years: 

  • Capital One Travel, based on the acquisition of Hopper, a dedicated online travel booking service, 

  • Capital One Shopping, built on the integration of Wikibuy, a digital shopping and couponing tool, 

  • Capital One Dining, a high-end restaurant booking tool designed thanks to a partnership between Capital One and SevenRooms.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• The diversification of traditional banks continues, as competitive boundaries have been eroded along with the appetite of new players and web giants for financial services.

• Concierge services have long been added to high-end card packages. However, the democratization of concierge services continues, with the digitalization of access to these services no longer the preserve of luxury customers. The addition of a conversational interface reinforces this trend, enabling all customers to simply ask their assistant a question.