Visa is in advanced talks with fraud prevention firm Featurespace, with the international payments leader seemingly set on acquiring the UK company.
According to Sky News, the duo are in advanced negotiations for a deal which could be worth millions of pounds. The outlet quoted one source stating that Featurepsace’s last valuation put the company at £700m.
However, it has also been stressed that nothing is certain and that negotiations could ultimately lead nowhere. Payment Expert has reached out to Featurespace for comment.
Founded in 2008 and based in the English city of Cambridge, Featurespace has emerged as one of the world’s pre-eminent fraud prevention and management specialists, utilising machine learning (ML) to support its operations.
The past two decades have seen Featurespace stand out as one of the more prominent adopters of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the finance sector. Last year, the firm launched TallierLTM, billed as the ‘world’s first’ Large Transaction Model (LTM) designed for financial protection.
Its efforts have not gone unnoticed by the UK’s traditional banking sector, with the likes of NatWest partnering with the company. Visa’s interest in the Featurespace is also hardly unsurprising, given the firm’s roles in both fraud prevention and AI.
These areas are taking on increasing importance in global finance, often for interconnected reasons. AI is emboldening and enhancing fraudster’s abilities, with deepfakes being arguably the most well known example of this.
AI in turn is being used extensively to counter fraud, and the rising threat of it – Featurespace being, as discussed above, a notable example of this. AI’s ability to process vast volumes of data and documents has made it an ideal asset for anti-fraud teams.
In major markets like the UK, fraud has become a major concern. The UK is bringing in new regulations around fraud prevention in two months time, setting new reimbursement standards for payments firms.
Against this backdrop, and given Visa’s extensive investment activity of late, its interest in acquiring a leading AI-backed fraud prevention company is hardly surprising, should Sky News’ sources be accurate.
