Visa buys BioCatch from Permira for $2.4 billion

Visa said it has agreed to pay $2.4 billion to buy BioCatch, a cybersecurity and fraud-prevention firm, to strengthen its services against digital crime enabled by artificial intelligence. The San Francisco-based card network will purchase the Israeli company from Permira investment funds and other shareholders, according to a press release issued Monday.

BioCatch works with about 350 banking clients in 21 countries, including 100 of the largest banks, and says it protects 1.8 billion devices and 760 million users. Visa said account takeovers and scams cost victims and the global economy about $1 trillion annually. Andrew Torre, Visa's president of value-added services, said AI is enabling these attacks at unprecedented scale.

Permira completed its majority purchase of BioCatch in September 2024 at a valuation of $1.3 billion, according to a release at the time. The deal is Visa's second fraud-focused acquisition in two years, after its agreement to buy UK firm Featurespace for about $1 billion in 2024.