In a move indicative of the payments sector’s ever-growing infatuation with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Visa has announced that it is acquiring Featurespace.
The US-based card issuing and payments processing giant has secured terms to takeover the Cambridge-founded AI payments protection developer, though the full terms of the acquisition have not been detailed.
Visa has clarified, however, that the takeover serves its ambition to strengthen and complement its fraud detection and risk-scoring solutions portfolio.
This comes at a time of mounting concern around fraud prevention, with countries such as the UK introducing new measures, set to come into effect on 7 October, to combat the threat of fraud.
Antony Cahill, Global Head of Value-added Services at Visa, said: “Providing our clients with solutions that can adapt to and anticipate the changing threat landscape is of the utmost importance.
“Featurespace’s strong foundation in AI will enhance our existing product portfolio and enable us to address our clients’ most complex and pressing challenges. We look forward to welcoming the Featurespace team to Visa.”
Visa and Featurespace state that the duo’s combined expertise will assist prospective clients with real-time fraud management, as well as offer greater protection for the payments ecosystem.
Like many other payments institutions, Visa has been upping the ante regarding its use of AI. Various firms have been eyeing up how AI can complement existing processes, with fraud prevention a common talking point – the use of AI to perpetrate fraud also comes up regularly in conversation.
Murmurings around Visa’s ambition to acquire Featurespace began to emerge last month. Now that the transaction has been announced, Visa expects to close the takeover in 2025, subject to closing conditions including regulatory approvals.
Dave Excell, Founder of Featurespace, added: “Over the past 12 years we have served the financial services industry, building a company that has gone from strength to strength, and we are thrilled to become a part of Visa.
“With Visa, we can bring the innovation, integrity and purpose of our platform and our team to more payment service providers and ultimately, stop more people from becoming victims of financial crime.”
