Capital One Named a Fast Company Most Innovative Company

McLean, Va., March 2, 2023 – Announced today, Capital One is named twice as part of Fast Company’s 2023 Most Innovative Companies list in both the Business Services and Travel & Hospitality categories for innovations in these sectors. Capital One is one of only a select few companies to be recognized in multiple categories this year, securing two top-10 spots in the following areas:

• Business Services: Capital One Slingshot helps businesses accelerate their adoption of Snowflake’s multi-cloud architecture, manage related costs, and automate critical cloud governance. Slingshot is the first product from Capital One Software, an enterprise B2B software business at Capital One that helps businesses accelerate their cloud and data management journeys at scale.

• Travel & Hospitality: Capital One has differentiated itself in the market by creating a tech-forward, end-to-end travel experience and card products with best-in-class travel benefits. It has set a new standard for travel and continues to challenge industry standards, setting a new bar for what discerning travelers should expect from their travel experience. 

Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list recognizes organizations that are using innovation to transform the world. For Capital One, the double recognition showcases how innovation is part of the organization’s DNA. Capital One has been on a decade-long tech transformation that has laid the foundation for innovations that will benefit its customers across industries. Capital One uses real-time data at scale, AI and machine learning, and the power of the cloud to build products, services, and experiences that can make a real difference in millions of peoples’ lives. 

Managing Data with Slingshot 

Capital One was one of the first large enterprises to move to the cloud – it had to build tools that didn’t exist in the marketplace to operate at scale, especially in the area of data management. Beginning with Slingshot, Capital One Software is now taking these tools to market in order to help other businesses that are facing similar data management challenges in the cloud, including data publishing, data consumption, data governance, and infrastructure management. 

Capital One built Slingshot to streamline its own Snowflake provisioning processes while adhering to governance requirements, provide detailed visibility into cost drivers, and help optimize future spend. For Capital One, Slingshot has already driven a number of results internally, including savings over projected costs and hours of manual labor saved.

“Slingshot has enabled Capital One to further scale its use of Snowflake, and we have heard early feedback from our customers – of varying sizes and industries – that Slingshot helps optimize their own Snowflake usage,” said Ravi Raghu, President, Capital One Software, International, Business Cards and Payments at Capital One. “We’re honored that Capital One secured a spot on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list due to our work on Slingshot. We have talked about Capital One as a tech company for a while now, but this recognition is truly a testament to our transformation.”

Slingshot enables cloud cost management through proactive alerts, intelligent recommendations and real-time performance dashboards. It makes provisioning easy, accelerates user adoption and decreases time to value. Slingshot also automates governance using custom workflows, dynamic warehouse provisioning and self-service capabilities. 

Creating a Differentiated End-to-End Travel Experience

As the issuer of a leading travel card franchise, travel has always been important to Capital One customers.  However, for years the traditional travel experience was fraught with uncertainty. There were cracks in the system, and the pandemic only elevated these challenges.   

“It became obvious that there was a better path forward, and Capital One set out to build it, approaching travel in a deeply customer-centric way. After identifying major travel pain points, we worked backwards to build features that challenge the status quo and create a seamless end-to-end travel experience,” said Matt Knise, Senior Vice President of Travel, Spend and Spatial Experiences at Capital One. “And this is just the beginning-  we’re committed to making travel better for our customers and ensuring we continue to lead the industry’s tech and innovation journey.”  

Not only did this approach elevate Capital One’s existing Venture travel franchise - along with other reward cards - but it provided the foundation for Venture X.  The company’s premium travel rewards card launched in late 2021 and continues to receive strong customer feedback and industry accolades, many which can be attributed to the new, innovative travel offerings Capital One continues to introduce.

“Before we launched a premium card, we knew we'd need a best in class travel offering,” said Lauren Liss, Senior Vice President of Premium Products and Marketing at Capital One. “Once we set our mind to building Venture X, it became a relentless pursuit to create a truly differentiated product that would be a no-brainer choice for the discerning traveler. The team put a lot of work into it - they delivered and continue to introduce new innovations that make our offerings even stronger."

Capital One is innovating in the travel space in many ways, including:

• Capital One Travel, powered by Hopper: Capital One’s travel booking experience was built to stand out not just relative to offerings from other financial services companies, but relative to any platform on the market.  Partnering closely with Hopper, Capital One created a frictionless experience that minimizes common pain points in today’s travel environment and empowers customers to book with confidence.

  • Capital One Travel was built to give customers peace of mind that they are getting the best available prices and offers features not found anywhere else in the credit card industry to make this possible, including price prediction, price alerts and price drop protection. In addition, the platform is fully integrated with Capital One Rewards, enabling customers to earn and redeem rich rewards on travel. 

  • Customers crave flexibility and Capital One continues to keep this top of mind when building travel products and booking platforms. Tools such as price freeze and cancellation of your flight for any reason offer customers a more flexible approach to booking travel than what exists anywhere else today. 

• Capital One Lounges: Capital One knows its customers prioritize access to lounges, but are looking for an experience that meets their unique needs.  Capital One took a fresh approach to lounges, offering an elevated grab-and-go section for travelers short on time , and a slew of premium amenities and local food and beverage options for those who have more time to spare. Capital one recently announced Capital One Landing.  This new culinary-focused concept - created in partnership with the Jose Andres Group - will offer top-notch food for travelers on their way to the gate

• Premier Collection: Earlier this year, Capital One launched the Premier Collection, a thoughtfully curated selection of hundreds of luxury hotels and resorts located in alluring destinations around the world. Available to book through Capital One Travel, Venture X cardholders are able to enjoy a suite of premium benefits, earn an industry-leading 10X miles per dollar on every stay and even redeem Venture X’s annual travel credit for bookings.