Visa Inc. (V), a top name in payment technology, revealed Monday plans to take over BioCatch, a firm specializing in real-time fraud monitoring, for $2.4 billion in cash. Funds managed by Permira and other shareholders will be selling the company. Before the market opened, Visa stock rose 1.38 percent to $371.21. Closing is expected in the second fiscal quarter of 2027, assuming standard requirements and regulatory clearances are met.
BioCatch relies on cutting-edge AI and machine learning to process data from applications, devices, and network behaviors. It tracks things like typing patterns, touch interactions, and device use to flag suspicious activities as they happen. Right now, the company secures 1.8 billion devices and 760 million users across the globe, supporting over 350 financial firms in 21 countries, including more than 100 major international banks.
The deal, Visa said, will boost its existing cybersecurity, fraud prevention, and risk management offerings. It's intended to aid banks and others in fighting threats such as stolen accounts, scams, fraudulent money transfers, and fake app signups. Visa added that these attacks and related schemes drain the global economy of more than $1 trillion every year.
Andrew Torre, who leads Visa's value-added services division, said the move supports the company's push to stop cyber dangers early. “BioCatch will allow our clients to detect fraud before it even reaches a payment,” Torre explained. He added, “This purchase aligns with our strategy to stop threats at the source, creating trust in every transaction.”
Gadi Mazor, CEO of BioCatch, pointed to the role of behavioral analysis in keeping digital banking secure. “Knowing what a customer is trying to do in real time is becoming more and more key for banks to build trust in digital sessions,” Mazor stated. He noted that for over ten years, the firm has shown how behavior can clearly tell the difference between real users and criminals.
In the last five years, Visa has poured over $13 billion into tech and infrastructure to strengthen payment systems and cut down fraud. It has also created the Visa Vulnerability Agentic Harness, an open-source artificial intelligence tool that helps clients find and fix problems quickly and efficiently across large systems.
Visa said it is acquiring the firm from London-based private equity firm Permira and other investors. The acquisition underscores how payments companies are racing to strengthen fraud defenses as generative AI makes attacks cheaper, faster, and more convincing. Visa estimates that scams and account takeovers cost the global economy more than $1 trillion annually. It is also the latest move by Visa to expand its value-added services business, which sells fraud prevention, cybersecurity and analytics software to financial institutions and has become one of the company's fastest-growing divisions. "BioCatch will help our clients stop fraud before it reaches the point of payment," Andrew Torre, Visa's president of value-added services, said in a statement.
The acquisition is expected to close by the end of Visa's fiscal second quarter in 2027, subject to regulatory approvals. While the Israeli startup said it currently protects 760 million users across roughly 350 banks, Visa's global rails connect nearly 14,500 financial institutions, processing over 329 billion transactions annually worth more than $17 trillion.
In a blog post accompanying the announcement, BioCatch said joining Visa will allow it to scale its impact amid a rising tide of global fraud. "The reality is, as a society and industry, we are not winning this fight," the firm said. "The value of fraud and scam losses and the number of fraud and scam attempts, mule accounts, and victims of these financial crimes all continue to grow (in some cases, exponentially) every year, all around the world."