Visa has agreed to buy BioCatch, a behavioural-first fraud intelligence specialist, in a $2.4bn all-cash transaction.
The company is being sold by funds advised by Permira alongside other shareholders. Visa said the purchase strengthens its cyber, fraud, risk and security portfolio and should give clients stronger defences against account takeovers, scams, money mule activity and application fraud, threats which continue to escalate.
BioCatch has built AI and machine learning tools that scrutinise thousands of signals across applications, behaviour, devices and networks, from typing patterns and touch gestures to how a device is held, in order to separate genuine customers from criminals as activity happens.
Its technology currently safeguards 1.8 billion devices and 760 million users globally, and it counts over 350 banking clients across 21 countries, among them more than 100 of the world’s biggest banks.
The deal reflects Visa’s view that AI, biometrics, authentication, identity, cyber defence and fraud prevention are converging disciplines. The firm has been investing to shield both its own network and its clients, including through the Visa Vulnerability Agentic Harness, an open-source AI security tool built to find and fix vulnerabilities at scale.
BioCatch extends Visa’s product range with AI-driven capabilities spanning the full journey from account opening through to transactions. Visa has committed over $13bn to technology and infrastructure during the past five years to protect the payments ecosystem and drive fraud rates down.
Visa president of value-added services Andrew Torre 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. This acquisition is part of our strategy to help clients prevent cyber threats upstream while continuing to protect transactions as they occur, building trust into every transaction.”
BioCatch CEO Gadi Mazor said, “Real-time insights into customer intent continue to grow increasingly essential for institutions to establish trust within digital banking sessions. For more than a decade, we’ve demonstrated behavior’s unique ability to distinguish the criminal from the legitimate.
“In the last couple of years, we’ve shown how real-time intelligence-sharing networks between our customers can amplify the power of our behavioral intelligence further still. Together with Visa, we’re even better positioned to advance our mission of making the world a safer place to transact and protect consumers from financial crime.”
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