Overview
- Visa agreed to acquire BioCatch for $2.4 billion in cash, the company announced Monday as part of a plan to expand its cybersecurity offerings.
- BioCatch’s platform uses behavioral biometrics — including keystroke timing, touch and swipe patterns and device handling — to tell real users apart from fraudsters in real time.
- The firm serves more than 350 banks in 21 countries and reports protection for about 1.8 billion devices and 760 million users while its models analyze roughly 19 billion sessions per month.
- The transaction is being sold by funds advised by Permira and other shareholders and remains subject to regulatory approval with Visa targeting close by the end of its fiscal second quarter of 2027 for integration.
- The purchase follows a broader push by card networks to buy specialist security firms as generative AI makes scams faster and more convincing and it is meant to give Visa a stronger upstream way to reduce losses for banks and customers.