Capital One buys Wikibuy, a four-year old startup used by millions to price-check while shopping on Amazon

Capital One has acquired WikiBuy, a four-year old tech startup used by millions to price-check while shopping on Amazon. The acquisition was made on Nov. 17 for an undisclosed amount, according to a report from CNBC citing executives from Capital One and the Austin, Texas-based startup.  As part of the acquisition agreement, Wikibuy, will remain as a separate product before potentially integrating it more with its digital offerings, according to Capital One executive, Joseph Poellnitz, who runs the bank’s upmarket cards division.

Founded in 2014 by Walt Coon, Wikibuy is a Google Chrome extension that confirms the availability of specific product and checks other retailers for better prices and for working coupons. When an individual accepts an offer which is sent by wikibuy and it places and tracks the order to make sure it gets delivered on time. The features of the site are instant savings, express checkouts, and money back guarantees. “Amazon is the bulk of purchases that we see online and definitely a dominant force,” said Adam Gauvin, Wikibuy’s president and co-CEO. “They’re certainly the price of record for most people, but there are often opportunities on other sites that want to be competitive.”

In a LinkedIn post, Walt said: “This is the best day of my career. Wikibuy is joining Capital One! Capital One shares Wikibuy’s vision of helping customers make better financial decisions.” In a separate blog post on their website, Walt Roloson and Adam Gauvin, Co-CEOs of Wikibuy wrote: “We could not be more excited to announce that Wikibuy is becoming part of Capital One. Capital One shares Wikibuy’s vision of helping customers save and make better financial decisions. The combination of Wikibuy and Capital One is phenomenal news for our customers. Together, Wikibuy will be able to leverage the power of Capital One’s platform to expand our offering and provide new innovative products that will help our users save even more time, and more money.”

“We’re constantly looking for things to solve the problem of the day in that end-to-end shopping experience,” he said. “Online shopping is of huge and growing importance to our customers, so we’ve invested a lot in that space,” Poellnitz said as he shared some insight on the purchase.

Wikibuy helps customers save money when shopping online by automating the process of saving money – via finding lower prices, coupons, loyalty rewards, and knowing the best time to buy. Retailers and brands that work with Wikibuy drive incremental business and new customer acquisition through individually-targeted promotions on Wikibuy’s website, app, and notifications. Starting with just an idea, they’ve grown to over 1 million active customers, developed exclusive partnerships with the largest retailers in the US.