Capital One Nabs Lola’s Team, Tech

Weeks after announcing it was ceasing operations and touting “new things to come,” corporate travel management startup Lola has revealed details of that next phase: the company will become part of Capital One.

The credit card giant has acquired Lola for an undisclosed sum in a deal that includes the company’s workforce and software platform, according to a report by The Boston Globe.

In a notice posted on Lola’s website Friday, company CEO Mike Volpe and CTO Paul English indicated Lola’s team and technology would be applied toward enhancing Capital One’s business-to-business payments offerings.

“Our talent and passion for B2B payments will join an existing team at Capital One focused on delivering innovative digital solutions to businesses,” the notice read, going on to cite “fintech innovation” and “transform[ing] the business payments industry” as goals moving forward.

While those comments hint that Capital One was interested mainly in Lola’s payments capabilities—which the company rolled out last year in a bid to diversify amid the shutdown of corporate travel amid the Covid-19 pandemic—Lola’s travel offerings also may have been attractive for the credit card provider.

Such was the case for American Express, which in 2018 acquired artificial intelligence-based travel assistant technology provider Mezi to power its AskAmex travel concierge service for cardholders.

Like that deal, Capital One’s acquisition of Lola removes a once-buzzworthy corporate travel provider from the sector. Launched in 2016 by Kayak co-founder English, Lola made a splash two years later, inking an exclusive partnership with American Express Global Business Travel. (The partnership was dissolved and all Lola users were transitioned to Amex GBT’s Neo1 travel management platform after Lola shuttered operations last month, according to GBT.)

The Lola deal marks the second time Capital One has plucked a company from the corporate travel sector, following its 2020 acquisition of flight disruption management and rebooking technology provider Freebird and subsequent shutdown of Freebird’s standalone product.

Adam Perrotta  www.businesstravelnews.com