Visa Inc.
Acquisitions
3
Major Deals Covered
$7.4B
Disclosed Deal Value
Visa's largest disclosed acquisition here is Plaid (abandoned) for $5.3B in 2020. This page covers 3 major deals from 2016 to 2022, each with its price where disclosed and the reason behind it.
| Company | Year | Price | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visa Europe | 2016 | Undisclosed | Visa Europe had been a separate, bank-owned association licensing the Visa brand since Visa Inc.'s 2008 IPO. Buying it put Europe back under the same company as the rest of the network. |
| Tink | 2022 | $2.1B | Visa bought Stockholm-based open banking platform Tink for ~$2.03 billion (EUR 1.8 billion) to gain API access to European bank accounts after its Plaid deal in the US was abandoned. |
| Plaid (abandoned) | 2020 | $5.3B | Visa agreed in January 2020 to buy US data-connectivity fintech Plaid for USD 5.3 billion. |
2022
$2.1B
Visa bought Stockholm-based open banking platform Tink for ~$2.03 billion (EUR 1.8 billion) to gain API access to European bank accounts after its Plaid deal in the US was abandoned.
Tink gives Visa account aggregation, verification and payment initiation services that work outside card rails.
The deal closed in March 2022 and Tink runs as Visa's open banking unit in Europe.
2020
$5.3B
Visa agreed in January 2020 to buy US data-connectivity fintech Plaid for USD 5.3 billion.
The US Justice Department sued to block the deal in November 2020, and Visa and Plaid called it off in January 2021.
2016
Visa Europe had been a separate, bank-owned association licensing the Visa brand since Visa Inc.'s 2008 IPO. Buying it put Europe back under the same company as the rest of the network.
The deal closed in June 2016 and was paid in cash, convertible preferred stock and a deferred payment, so Visa operates one network and one set of rules worldwide.
Visa Europe became Visa's Europe region, and European revenue has since been reported inside Visa Inc.'s results.
Visa's growth strategy is to expand credentials, increase digital acceptance, grow cross-border and e-commerce volume, sell more value-added services, scale Visa Direct, support tap-to-pay and tokenized commerce, and embed Visa capabilities inside fintech and banking platforms. The company is also buying or partnering for capabilities that make it useful in account-to-account, real-time, and open-banking environments.
Visa earns fees from the banks and other clients that use its network, not interest from cardholders. Its reported revenue lines are service revenue (based on payments volume), data processing revenue (based on transactions authorized, cleared and settled over VisaNet), international transaction revenue (cross-border and currency conversion activity) and other revenue, including value-added services such as fraud and risk tools, tokenization, issuer processing and consulting. Client incentives paid to issuers and merchants are deducted to arrive at net revenue. Interchange is set by Visa but paid between acquiring and issuing banks, so it is not Visa revenue.
In June 2016, Visa Inc. completed the reunification of Visa Europe for $23.4 billion in cash, preferred stock, and earn-outs, bringing over 3,000 European banks and 500 million cards under unified global governance.
In July 2010, Visa acquired online payment gateway Cybersource for $2.0 billion, instantly giving Visa enterprise e-commerce checkout software, merchant fraud screening, and direct merchant acquiring relationships.
In March 2022, Visa completed the €1.8 billion (~$2.1 billion) acquisition of Stockholm-based Tink, connecting Visa to over 3,400 European banks and financial institutions via open banking APIs.
In January 2024, Visa closed its $1.0 billion acquisition of Pismo, a cloud-native issuer processing and core banking platform based in Brazil, allowing Visa to provide cloud core banking services to financial institutions globally.
In January 2021, Visa and Plaid mutually abandoned their proposed $5.3 billion merger after the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging the deal would illegally eliminate a nascent competitor to Visa's debit monopoly.
In December 2021, Visa completed the £700 million (~$925 million) buyout of UK-based Currencycloud, integrating embedded cross-border foreign exchange and multi-currency virtual wallet APIs into Visa's network.
In May 2019, Visa outbid Mastercard to acquire UK cross-border payments firm Earthport for approximately $320 million, enabling Visa Direct to route push payments into bank accounts across 80+ countries.
In 2016, Visa acquired CardinalCommerce, the industry leader in 3-D Secure e-commerce authentication software, helping merchants dramatically reduce online card-not-present fraud.
Visa Ventures is the corporate venture arm that invests in early-to-growth stage fintechs, having backed companies like Stripe, Marqeta, Square, and prominent AI security startups.
Visa selectively acquires technology platforms that expand Value-Added Services (VAS), strengthen cloud-native developer tooling, or extend Visa Direct's account-to-account reach.
Given fierce regulatory oversight in Washington and Brussels, Visa focuses on complementary infrastructure, cybersecurity, and international software tuck-ins rather than acquiring direct payments competitors.
Backed by over $20 billion in annual free cash flow, Visa opportunistically allocates $1B to $3B annually for strategic tuck-ins in AI fraud detection, open banking, and B2B workflow software.
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