Aug 3 (Reuters) - Visa said on Monday it would buy fraud intelligence provider BioCatch for $2.4 billion in cash, marking the card giant's latest effort to beef up its cybersecurity offerings.
The deal would help the world's largest payment processor further bolster its existing cyber, fraud, risk and security offerings and enable it to help clients better protect themselves in an increasingly complex threat environment, Visa said.
"Account takeovers and scams cost the global economy over $1 trillion annually and AI is enabling these attacks at unprecedented scale. BioCatch will help our clients stop fraud before it reaches the point of payment," said Andrew Torre, president of value-added services at Visa.
Founded in 2011, BioCatch helps detect fraud and distinguish legitimate users from fraudsters in real time by analyzing signals such as keystrokes, touch gestures and device handling to safeguard transactions.
The firm serves more than 350 banking clients in 21 countries and offers protection to 1.8 billion devices and 760 million users around the world.
"We think investors will welcome the news as there has been increasing discussion about the need for enhanced fraud solutions to protect payments in the AI age, with many flagging Mastercard's Recorded Future as the best-in-class tool for this," Evercore analyst Adam Frisch said.
Permira first invested in BioCatch in 2023 and then acquired a majority stake in 2024 at a $1.3 billion valuation. Under the investment firm's ownership, BioCatch's revenue and gross profit both grew roughly threefold.
Card giants have increasingly turned to acquisitions to bolster their fraud prevention offerings in recent years.
Mastercard finalized a $2.65 billion acquisition of threat intelligence company Recorded Future in 2024, while Visa bought payments protection firm Featurespace the same year.
Over the last five years, Visa has invested more than $13 billion in technology and infrastructure to tackle fraudsters.
The BioCatch deal is expected to close by the end of Visa's fiscal second quarter of 2027.
Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das and Shinjini Ganguli
Source: Reuters