Visa has agreed to acquire BioCatch for $2.4 billion in cash, in a deal that signals a broader shift in how payment fraud is being tackled. Rather than focusing only on whether a transaction looks suspicious, Visa is adding technology designed to identify potentially fraudulent behaviour before a payment even takes place.

BioCatch uses behavioural and device intelligence to analyse how people interact with digital banking services. Its technology examines thousands of signals, including keystrokes, touch gestures, device activity, and network information, to distinguish legitimate users from fraudsters in real time.

Moving Fraud Detection Upstream

The strategic value for Visa is that many modern scams cannot be identified simply by analysing the final transaction. An authorised customer may be tricked into sending money, an account may be taken over, or a fraudster may manipulate a user during a banking session.

BioCatch is designed to detect these patterns while the user is interacting with a financial service. Visa says this could help its clients address account takeovers, scams, money mules, and application fraud before they reach the payment stage.

BioCatch currently serves more than 350 banking clients across 21 countries, protecting 760 million users and 1.8 billion devices. Its network analyses around 19 billion user sessions each month.

A Broader Fraud and Security Strategy

The acquisition also fits into Visa’s wider investment in cybersecurity and fraud prevention. The company says it has invested more than $13 billion in technology and infrastructure over the past five years to protect the payments ecosystem.

For Visa, adding behavioural intelligence expands its role from securing transactions to helping financial institutions understand what happens before a transaction occurs. The acquisition remains subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of Visa’s fiscal second quarter of 2027.

Key takeaways for fintech startups

Visa’s BioCatch acquisition highlights how fraud prevention is becoming increasingly proactive. Key lessons include:

• Fraud detection is moving from transaction monitoring toward behavioural intelligence.
  
  
• AI can help identify risk earlier by analysing patterns rather than isolated events.
  
  
• Financial infrastructure providers are expanding upstream into identity, authentication, and cybersecurity.

For fintechs, the opportunity is increasingly about preventing financial crime before it reaches the payment layer. Contact us to explore how Your Fintech Story can help shape your fintech strategy and positioning.

Axle has raised $17.5 million in Series A funding to expand its AI-powered infrastructure for insurance workflows. The round was led by Base10 Partners, with continued backing from Y Combinator and Gradient Ventures, alongside Stage2 Capital, Cover Genius co-founder Chris Bayley, and other industry investors.

The latest funding follows a period of rapid growth for Axle. Over the past six months, the company has tripled the number of workflows it automates and now processes more than $100 billion in insurance coverage annually for over 4,000 businesses.

Making Insurance Data More Programmable

Insurance remains deeply reliant on fragmented systems, manual processes, and unstructured documents. Businesses often need to verify coverage, update policies, or monitor changes through a combination of phone calls, PDFs, and other disconnected workflows.

Axle is building what it describes as an AI-native clearinghouse for insurance. Its infrastructure connects to fragmented insurance systems, routes requests to the appropriate sources, and standardises unstructured information into a common format.

The result is a single API that businesses and AI agents can use to automate insurance-related workflows, including checking whether a customer has coverage, confirming requirements, and monitoring policy changes.

Expanding Across Insurance Markets

Axle says its technology currently supports businesses including mortgage lenders, auto dealers, rental companies, auto lenders, and employers, with customers including Rocket Mortgage, Avis, Experian, and Sonic Automotive.

The company plans to use the new funding to expand its engineering and go-to-market teams and extend its clearinghouse across more than 50 insurance segments covering Home, Auto, Renters, Commercial, and Specialty insurance.

Key takeaways for fintech startups

Axle highlights how modern infrastructure can transform industries where critical processes remain highly manual. Key lessons include:

• AI can create significant value by connecting fragmented legacy systems.
  
  
• Standardised data infrastructure can enable new software and automation layers.
  
  
• Industry-specific APIs can become foundational infrastructure for entire ecosystems.

As financial and insurance services become increasingly programmable, fintechs have an opportunity to modernise the infrastructure supporting traditional industries. Contact us to explore how Your Fintech Story can support your fintech strategy and growth.