BioCatch

How to detect fraud without a password

Most authentication methods in the digital world check something the user knows (a password) or has (a phone, a token). The problem: once an attacker steals that item, through phishing, malware or persuasion over the phone, the system can no longer tell the attacker apart from the real owner. BioCatch, founded in 2011, chose to check a third thing: how the user behaves. Typing speed, the angle at which the phone is held, scrolling speed and mouse movement create a unique "behavioral fingerprint" that is hard to imitate, even for someone who knows the right password.

Its model runs in the background throughout the whole session, not only at the moment of login. This lets it detect in real time account takeovers, social engineering scams in which a victim is persuaded to transfer money themselves, and automated bot activity that tries to imitate a human user.

From a start in Tel Aviv to 350+ financial institutions

The company, founded by Avi Turgeman, Benny Rosenbaum and Uri Rivner in 2011, grew step by step from an Israeli startup into a global infrastructure provider. In 2020 it acquired the British company AimBrain and raised $145 million from Bain Capital, and over the years it built up more than 60 granted and pending patents. Today it has offices in Tel Aviv, London, New York, São Paulo, Mexico City, Mumbai and Sydney.

According to Visa's official announcement from August 2026, the BioCatch platform now protects 1.8 billion devices and 760 million users, and serves more than 350 financial institutions in 21 countries, including more than 100 of the world's largest banks, while analyzing about 19 billion user sessions a month.

The Visa acquisition: $2.4 billion

In August 2026, Visa announced that it had signed a binding agreement to acquire BioCatch from Permira funds and other shareholders for $2.4 billion in cash. It is one of the largest acquisitions of an Israeli cybersecurity company by an American corporation. According to Visa, the goal is to build BioCatch's behavioral biometrics capabilities into its wider security system, and to help its clients stop fraud "before it reaches the point of payment."

"For more than a decade, we've demonstrated behavior's unique ability to distinguish the criminal from the legitimate," said Gadi Mazor, CEO of BioCatch, in the acquisition announcement. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close by the end of Visa's fiscal second quarter of 2027.