Visa said Monday it will acquire BioCatch, an AI-powered fraud detection company, for $2.4 billion in cash, in the latest move by the payments giant to bolster its cybersecurity arsenal.
BioCatch, based in Tel Aviv, uses behavioral and device intelligence — analyzing how people type, swipe and move through apps — to flag fraud in real time, from account takeovers to synthetic-identity scams. The company was backed by private equity firm Permira and other investors.
The deal builds on Visa's existing cyber, fraud and risk products, giving the card network a stronger answer to an increasingly automated threat landscape in which AI-generated attacks can scale faster than human analysts can respond. The transaction is expected to close in the coming quarters, subject to regulatory approvals.
It is the latest in a string of security investments: Visa says it has spent more than $13 billion over the past five years to shore up vulnerabilities across its network. For BioCatch, the acquisition caps a long run as one of the most prominent startups in behavioral biometrics — a field that has moved from novelty to necessity as card-not-present fraud dominates losses.
Visa said it expects the acquisition to be neutral to modestly accretive to earnings. Neither company disclosed further terms beyond the headline price.
