U.S. bank Capital One will acquire fintech unicorn Brex for $5.15 billion, TechCrunch reported on Jan. 22 local time.

The deal is valued at less than half the $12.3 billion valuation Brex received in its 2022 Series D-2 round. TechCrunch said it was still a successful exit for early investors.

Early investors in Brex including Ribbit Capital, Y Combinator, Kleiner Perkins and Peter Thiel earned more than 700 times their money on a $7 million Series A investment at its founding in 2017. But later investors delivered below-expectation results as rival Ramp grew rapidly. Ramp raised $2.3 billion over the same period and lifted its valuation to $32 billion.

Brex has provided corporate financial services to startups and small and medium-sized businesses, including credit cards, expense management, banking and spending reports.

Capital One's acquisition came 5 months after Brex secured a European Union corporate licence. This will allow Capital One to secure Brex's technology platform and major clients such as TikTok, Robinhood and Intel. The acquisition was also influenced by $13 billion in deposit assets managed by Brex.