Capital One Acquires Adaptive Path

Capital One has acquired San Francisco-based user experience consulting firm Adaptive Path, the latter company announced in a blog post on Thursday. Adaptive Path, formed in 2001, has done consulting work for businesses including Flickr, Twitter, and Airbnb in the past. In the blog post announcing the acquisition, the company's chief creative officer, Jesse James Garrett, said Adaptive Path had rebuffed takeover attempts in the past.

"Somebody came along who finally, truly, seemed to get it," he wrote. "A company with a great culture that shares and values our intellectual curiosity and design sensibilities, that wants us to continue doing great work inside their organization, but also continue helping others do great work too, by fostering dialogue and teaching what we have learned. And that somebody, remarkably, turned out to be Capital One."

Garrett further wrote that he was skeptical a "huge bank" such as Capital One could provide the "environment of creativity" in which the firm could flourish. "But honestly, when it comes to truly human-centered thinking, Capital One is among the top tier of all the organizations I have worked with in 15 years of consulting." He added that the bank already excels at digital product design, design thinking, and experience research and development.

Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed. Adaptive Path will keep its name and continue operating as a team, but its consulting business will close as it focuses on helping drive user experience at Capital One, the firm said.

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio