Continuing its strategy of buying in user experience expertise, Capital One has acquired Oakland-based design and development outfit Monsoon for an undisclosed fee.
Having poached Google's Dan Makowski as its first VP of design, last year Capital One surprised many and demonstrated its focus on user experience by acquiring San Francisco design firm Adaptive Path.
Now the bank has added to the mix with Monsoon, a 40-person team that has worked on app and site development for the likes of Wells Fargo, Cisco and Microsoft.
Skip Potter, managing VP, engineering, Capital One, told TechCrunch that the acquisition came about after the bank brought in Monsoon for around six months to work on a product for small business customers.
Explaining the decision to sell up, Monsoon's Sandeep Sood says; "Why are we selling to a bank? Shouldn't we be going to an electric car company or to a sexy hardware startup? We don't think so.
"During the past few years, the way we understand money has begun to change at the most fundamental levels, and of course, financial technology is at the heart of this change. Capital One understands that banking is ripe for transformation and we are deeply excited to be joining them to deliver bold, breakthrough transformations that will help people connect with their finances in new, meaningful and delightful ways."