US-based digital payments company Visa has agreed to acquire Brazilian payments infrastructure startup Pismo, for a total consideration of $1bn.
Pismo is a technology company that provides an all-in-one processing platform for banking, payments, and financial markets infrastructure.
Its payment platform will enable Visa to provide support and connectivity for emerging payment rails, such as Pix in Brazil, for financial institution clients.
Visa facilitates digital transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories.
Through the acquisition of Pismo, Visa is set to provide core banking and issuer processing capabilities across debit, prepaid, credit and commercial cards through cloud native APIs.
Pismo will retain its founders and current management team. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this year, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
Pismo co-founder, CEO Ricardo Josua said: “At Pismo, we aim to enable our clients to launch cutting-edge payments and banking products within a single cloud-native platform, regardless of rails, geography or currency.
“Visa provides us unrivalled support to expand our footprint globally and help shape a new era for banking and payments.”
Visa chief product and strategy officer Jack Forestell said: “Through the acquisition of Pismo, Visa can better serve our financial institution and fintech clients with more differentiated core banking and issuer solutions they can offer their customers.”
Last year, Visa has completed its acquisition of Tink, an open banking platform that enables financial institutions, fintechs and merchants to build financial products and services.
Tink enables its customers to move money, access aggregated financial data, and use smart financial services such as risk insights and account verification, all through a single API.
Earlier this month, Visa has introduced a new initiative to provide the fintech start-ups and entrepreneurs in Africa, with training, connections, technology, and investment opportunities.
The new initiative, dubbed the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator programmev, was launched at Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Africa in Marrakech, Morocco.