Cards giant Visa announced on Monday that it will be acquiring BioCatch to amp up its security against rising AI threats in the financial ecosystem. BioCatch is an Israeli threat intelligence startup founded in 2011 and headquartered in Tel Aviv. In its announcement Visa said it will be acquiring BioCatch for $2.4 billion in cash followed by deliberations with investment firm Permira and other shareholders.
Over $1 trillion is slipping out of the global economy annually, Visa claimed, crediting the financial drainage to AI-fueled advanced cyber attacks. It said that scams like account takeovers have become increasingly common over the last few years, causing serious financial losses on an international scale.
With BioCatch, Visa looking to give its threat detection methods a big upgrade to stop potential scams and attacks before malicious actors even reach the point of payments.
“This acquisition is part of our strategy to help clients prevent cyber threats upstream, building trust into every transaction,” said Andrew Torre, president of value-added services, Visa.
Over the last decade, BioCatch has managed to design intelligence systems that can analyze threat patterns including keystrokes, touchscreen swipes, and device handling to differenciate between genuine users from cyber criminals. The security firm has already been serving 760 million users across 21 nations, Visa claimed.
“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,” Gadi Mazor, CEO, BioCatch noted.
Between 2021 and 2026, Visa claims to have invested over $13 billion in matching the pace of its security provisions with the rapidly evolving AI advancements. While the company does not guarantee a 100 percent safety net against potential cyber threats, it is prioritizing proactive threat detection methods to be able to increase its scam detection features.
This acquisition for Visa is intended to add more security to its own homegrown intelligence systems. The company has already deployed its own Visa Vulnerability Agentic Harness as an open-source AI security tool to let its clients identify vulnerabilities and remediate timely.
The cards company estimates the deal to close by the second quarter of 2027.
Given the growing AI influx into international financial ecosystem, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also advised financial companies to start tightening their security provisions. The IMF is concerned that if AI keeps penetrating the global financial fabric, criminals could keep identifying newer technical loopholes to exploit leading to financial catastrophes.
