Visa to buy fraud intelligence firm BioCatch for $2.4 billion

Visa agreed to acquire BioCatch, an AI-powered fraud detection company, for $2.4 billion in cash, Yahoo Finance reported, citing the payments company's Monday announcement. Visa is buying the Israeli firm from funds advised by Permira and other shareholders. BioCatch monitors behavioral cues such as typing, swipes, and device handling to separate genuine users from fraudsters in real time. Yahoo Finance and iTnews said its base spans more than 350 banks in 21 countries, covering 1.8 billion devices and 760 million users. Andrew Torre, Visa's president of value-added services, said account takeovers and scams cost the global economy over $1 trillion annually and that AI is enabling these attacks at scale. Permira first invested in 2023 and took a majority stake in 2024 at a US$1.3 billion valuation; under that ownership revenue and gross profit grew roughly threefold, iTnews reported. Visa has invested more than $13 billion in fraud-related technology over five years and previously bought Featurespace; Mastercard closed a $2.65 billion Recorded Future deal in 2024. Closing is expected by the end of Visa's fiscal second quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.