Visa Acquires Israeli Cybersecurity Firm BioCatch for $2.4 Billion

Visa, the American credit card giant, announced it will acquire Israeli cybersecurity company BioCatch for $2.4 billion in cash. The deal, reported on August 3, 2026, is expected to close by mid-2027 pending regulatory approvals. BioCatch develops advanced technology that detects financial fraud by analyzing user behavior on devices rather than relying solely on passwords. The system evaluates thousands of parameters such as typing patterns, phone handling, and screen touches to create a unique behavioral fingerprint, identifying in real time whether the user is legitimate or an impostor.

The seller in this transaction is the investment fund Permira, which acquired control of BioCatch in 2024 from previous shareholders Bain Capital and Maverick Ventures at a valuation of approximately $1.3 billion. Founded in 2011 in Tel Aviv by Avi Turgeman and the late Benny Rosenbaum, BioCatch currently employs around 400 people, mostly in Israel. The company has raised $115 million to date, excluding secondary sales by existing shareholders.

BioCatch’s technology currently protects 1.8 billion devices and 760 million users across 21 countries, working with over 350 banks worldwide. CEO Gadi Mazor highlighted the company’s decade-long expertise in behavioral analysis to distinguish criminals from legitimate users and noted recent advances in real-time intelligence sharing among clients.

Andrew Torre, President of Value-Added Services at Visa, emphasized the growing global cost of account takeovers and fraud, which exceed one trillion dollars annually. He pointed out that artificial intelligence enables attackers to scale these threats dramatically. Visa’s acquisition aligns with a broader industry shift from one-time login authentication to continuous user evaluation during digital activity. Over the past five years, Visa has invested more than $13 billion in security infrastructure to proactively prevent fraud before payment stages.

This acquisition marks a significant expansion of Visa’s cybersecurity capabilities, reinforcing its strategy to stay ahead of evolving financial threats through innovative behavioral biometrics technology.