Visa acquires BioCatch for $2.4B to supercharge fraud detection with behavioral biometrics

Visa just wrote a $2.4 billion check for the ability to tell whether that’s really you tapping your phone screen. The payments giant announced a definitive agreement to acquire BioCatch, an Israeli behavioral biometrics company, in an all-cash deal that ranks among the largest Israeli tech acquisitions ever. What BioCatch actually does Think of BioCatch as a digital body language reader. The company’s technology analyzes how users interact with their devices, things like typing speed, swipe patterns, mouse movements, and even the angle at which someone holds their phone. It processes billions of user sessions using more than 3,000 behavioral and device signals to determine whether the person making a transaction is legitimate or a fraudster. In English: if someone steals your banking credentials and logs in, BioCatch can still flag the session because the imposter doesn’t scroll, tap, or hesitate the way you do. The company currently protects over 680 million accounts worldwide. Its client roster includes more than 350 banks globally, making it one of the most widely deployed behavioral biometrics platforms in financial services. BioCatch is headquartered in Tel Aviv and has been o...