There are liquidity preferences, nobody took a haircut, they may not made a lot of money as long as the sale price($5.1B) is greater than funds raised($1.2B) everyone made some money not as much as they thought, but nevertheless some.
The reason may be different than you think, Capital One is known for its aggressive marketing campaigns and physical mail spam, it is more likely they didn't want to upset the customers and end users on what Capital One will mean
It is quite likely Capitial one will mine the data, monetize the brand, sell other products and target high value users the typical Brex user.
Liquidation preferences may have multiples. A 3x liquidation preference would have erased most gains for anyone who didn’t raise in the last round, employees and founders included.
> as the sale price($5.1B) is greater than funds raised($1.2B) everyone made some money
Absolutely not true. It means someone made money, but it very much does not mean that "everyone" made some money.
In deals like this, common stock often is valued at $0, and employees are instead given a 4-year grant of RSUs in the new company. In other words, their time at Brex was worthless, and they have to last 4 years to get anything. The schedule is often back loaded (eg $0 in the first 2 years, 50% at year 3 and 4). Since most folks won't make it to 3 years, the company knows they won't be paying out almost any of these grants.
There are liquidity preferences, nobody took a haircut, they may not made a lot of money as long as the sale price($5.1B) is greater than funds raised($1.2B) everyone made some money not as much as they thought, but nevertheless some.
The reason may be different than you think, Capital One is known for its aggressive marketing campaigns and physical mail spam, it is more likely they didn't want to upset the customers and end users on what Capital One will mean
It is quite likely Capitial one will mine the data, monetize the brand, sell other products and target high value users the typical Brex user.