Visa has agreed to acquire Featurespace to enhance its existing fraud detection solutions, offering real-time AI-based protection against payment fraud and financial crime.

Visa announced on Sept. 26 that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Featurespace, a developer of real-time artificial intelligence (AI) payment protection technology that mitigates payment fraud and financial crime risks.

Featurespace’s technology is used by over 80 direct customers and 100,000 businesses, including HSBC, NatWest, TSYS, Worldpay, Danske Bank, Akbank, Edenred and Permanent TSB.

The new partnership will leverage Featurespace’s innovative algorithms to strengthen Visa’s digital payment ecosystem. Featurespace’s solutions can analyse transaction data, adapt to the changing threats, and detect even the most elusive fraud cases. The enhanced payment protection portfolio will help Visa address its clients’ most complex and pressing challenges, believes Antony Cahill, Global Head of Value-added Services at Visa.

The deal is expected to close in fiscal year 2025, pending regulatory approvals, and will provide significant benefits to both financial institutions and consumers by improving fraud prevention capabilities.

This investment builds on Visa’s commitment to the payment ecosystem security. Within the last five years, Visa has invested billions of dollars in cybersecurity, risk assessment, and other means of payment protection.

According to the company’s statement, as a result of its investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other security technologies, last year, through the use of advanced functional solutions to ensure financial security, Visa managed to block the process of making 80 million fraudulent transactions totalling $40 billion.