{"slug": "visa-to-buy-anti-fraud-startup-for-2-4b", "title": "Visa to buy anti-fraud startup for $2.4B", "summary": "Visa Inc. agreed to pay $2.4 billion to acquire BioCatch, an Israeli cybersecurity and fraud-prevention firm, from Permira investment funds and other shareholders, aiming to bolster its defenses against AI-driven digital fraud. BioCatch's AI and machine learning solutions analyze behavioral signals to detect fraud in real time, serving 350 banking clients across 21 countries, including 100 of the largest banks, and protecting 1.8 billion devices and 760 million users. The acquisition follows Visa's $1 billion purchase of Featurespace in 2024, as account takeovers and scams cost the global economy about $1 trillion annually, according to Andrew Torre, Visa's president of value-added services.", "body_md": "Visa said it has agreed to pay $2.4 billion to buy the cybersecurity and fraud-prevention firm BioCatch in an effort to bolster its suite of services fighting the rise of digital crimes fueled by artificial intelligence.\n\nThe San Francisco-based card network plans to purchase the Israeli firm from Permira investment funds and other shareholders, [according to a press release Monday](https://investor.visa.com/news/news-details/2026/Visa-to-Acquire-BioCatch/default.aspx).\n\n“BioCatch has developed innovative AI and machine learning-based solutions that analyze thousands of application, behavioral, device, and network signals — such as keystrokes, touch gestures, and device handling — to detect fraud and distinguish legitimate users from fraudsters in real time,” the release said.\n\nVisa and other payments companies have been racing to build up their defenses against fraud as [international criminals harness AI](https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/payments-fraud-risks-burgeon-with-ai/810078/) to insert themselves in payments flows and steal corporate and consumer funds.\n\nAccount takeovers and scams cost victims and the global economy some $1 trillion annually, according to Andrew Torre, Visa’s president of value-added services, said in the release. “AI is enabling these attacks at unprecedented scale.”\n\nBioCatch currently works with some 350 banking clients in 21 different countries, including 100 of the largest banks, protecting 1.8 billion devices and 760 million users, according to the release.\n\nIn September 2024, Permira completed its purchase of a [majority ownership stake in BioCatch](https://www.permira.com/news-and-insights/announcements/permira-completes-acquisition-of-majority-position-in-biocatch-at-13-billion-valuation) in a transaction that valued the company at that time at $1.3 billion, according to a release at the time.\n\nThe acquisition is Visa’s second in the fraud arena in as many years. In 2024, it agreed to pay about $1 billion to buy the [British cybersecurity and analytics software firm Featurespace](https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/visa-acquisition-cybersecurity-firm-featurespace-artificial-intelligence-fraud/728183/).\n\nWhile account incursions and digital identity troubles continue to grow, the instance of scams -- where consumers and executives are duped into sending payments -- has become an increasingly vexing problem. Visa [detected that amount in scams alone](https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/ai-fueled-scams-drive-fraud-visa/820800/) in the latter half of 2025, the company said last year.\n\nIn 2024, Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said the company was [spending billions of dollars](http://“We are all in an arms race to protect this ecosystem, to protect the network,” Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said at an investor conference last week.) each year to build up its protections against fraud, both for its own systems as well as in providing services for customers. “We are all-in an arms race to protect this ecosystem, to protect the network,” he said at that time.\n\nIn a Visa survey late last year of about 1,200 merchant professionals around the world that use e-commerce payments, the card network found about 80% consider data and technology their “biggest fraud management challenges,” according the company’s 2026 global [e-commerce payments and fraud report](https://www.visaacceptance.com/en-us/insights/fraud-report.html?utm_campaign=&utm_term=fraud%20report%202025&utm_media=paid&utm_medium=search&utm_marketingcreativetype=search&utm_content=website&utm_source=google&dcid=bb8bbe11-4492-f011-b4cb-000d3a34671f&utm_campaign=22185228373&utm_term=fraud%20report%202025&utm_media=paid&utm_medium=search&utm_marketingcreativetype=search&utm_content=website&utm_source=google&dcid=bb8bbe11-4492-f011-b4cb-000d3a34671f&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22185228373&gbraid=0AAAAApW_S7S2wTNhQzP9YKg6kPHOP5Gp-&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-MDTBhCgARIsAKAkdlTgo-qXRFy-6sgeht56-j_QpV25gP_BxCXXlv5f8JXL-lrE60yLZBUaAiZVEALw_wcB).\n\nThe international payments company, which likely faced a barrage of fraud attacks during its recent sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup event, counters some $1 billion in such threats annually.\n\nBioCatch, [founded in 2011](https://www.biocatch.com/about-biocatch) and based in Tel Aviv, has worked with American payments companies in the past. In 2015, it [initiated an alliance with Early Warning Services](https://www.paymentsdive.com/ex/mpt/news/early-warning-biocatch-partner-on-fraud-prevention-for-fis/newsletter@ittnewsletter.com), the bank-owed parent company of Zelle and Paze payments systems. This year, EWS revived its early focus on battling fraud by [creating its new Certos brand](https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/why-ews-created-certos/818964/).\n\n“Real-time insights into customer intent continue to grow increasingly essential for institutions to establish trust within digital banking sessions,” BioCatch CEO Gadi Mazor said in the release. “For more than a decade, we've demonstrated behavior’s unique ability to distinguish the criminal from the legitimate.”", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/visa-to-buy-anti-fraud-startup-for-2-4b", "canonical_source": "https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/visa-to-buy-biocatch-for-24b/826816/", "published_at": "2026-08-03 17:03:46+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-03 17:22:24.875780+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "machine-learning", "ai-products", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Visa Inc.", "BioCatch", "Permira", "Andrew Torre", "Featurespace", "Ryan McInerney"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/visa-to-buy-anti-fraud-startup-for-2-4b", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/visa-to-buy-anti-fraud-startup-for-2-4b.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/visa-to-buy-anti-fraud-startup-for-2-4b.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/visa-to-buy-anti-fraud-startup-for-2-4b.jsonld"}}