Visa buys Israeli fraud prevention co BioCatch for $2.4b

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Visa today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Israeli digital fraud and financial crime protection company BioCatch for $2.4 billion in cash. The company has raised $115 million to date from venture capital funds and investors and has 400 employees. This is one of the biggest-ever deals in the Israeli tech sector.

This is the second time that BioCatch has been sold - but this time all the company's shares are being sold. Last March, the Permira private equity fund acquired control of the company at a valuation of $1.3 billion with the help of Robyn and Wyndham funds.

Permira buys control of BioCatch at $1.3b valuation

The latest acquisition represents an increase in value of over $1 billion in 15 months. Among the company's early investors are: Maverick Ventures, the Jerusalem investment group OurCrowd, Joule Ventures, Bloomberg Capital, Elroy Capital and Kraus, currently controlled by BlackRock. In a deal last year, Bain Capital and Maverick Ventures sold shares worth $750 million, and in return, they gave Permira control with 57% of the company's shares.

BioCatch, led by CEO Gadi Mazor, a former partner at OurCrowd, has developed a system for managing user identities based on biological parameters such as mouse movements and individual browsing habits. Last year, the company also entered the financial crime prevention business by launching a product that offers a more proactive approach to identifying bank accounts used for fraud.

In 2025, the company reported 43% growth in annual recurring revenue (ARR), a figure used by young startups to indicate growth without disclosing accounting revenue figures. BioCatch claimed that at the end of 2023, ARR had crossed the $100 million mark and the company had moved to EBITDA profitability.

According to today’s announcement, BioCatch protects 1.8 billion devices and 760 million users worldwide. The company serves over 350 banks, including 100 of the world's largest.

Mazor said, "The company isn't going away. After the acquisition, we will continue to operate as we have been doing, but now as part of Visa. I am not leaving either. With Visa, we will retain our entire management team and reporting structure, and we are excited to join its value-added services organization. We will continue to serve the same financial institutions as we have always done: with market-leading technologies and service from a team of solution engineers, threat analysts, conflict managers and global consultants, all working in close collaboration with banking teams."

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 3, 2026.