Mastercard acquires Recorded Future for $2.65b to strengthen its threat intelligence capabilities.

The payments business announced on Thursday that Mastercard, has reached an agreement to purchase threat intelligence company Recorded Future from private equity firm Insight Partners for $2.65 billion.

Mastercard, which last year reached $9 trillion in gross dollar volumes—a measure that indicates the total dollar worth of all completed transactions—will benefit from increased threat intelligence capabilities as a result of the acquisition.

Rapid technological usage has increased the risk of cyber threats, with ransomware and hacking attacks becoming more commonplace for businesses.

Evolve Bank, situated in Arkansas, declared in June that it had been the target of a cyberattack in which customer information had been improperly leaked on the dark web.

Mastercard has been using generative AI technologies to detect card fraud more frequently.

The company already works with Recorded Future on a service that notifies financial institutions when a card is probably compromised. Recorded Future employs AI-powered analytics to identify potential threats.

The rate at which compromised cards are discovered has increased since the service’s launch earlier this year, according to Mastercard.

Mastercard’s strategy drive into value-added services (VAS) is congruent with the move (to acquire Recorded Future), according to TD Cowen analysts, who noted that cybersecurity solutions appear prominently.

According to the letter, it provides the business with an additional tool for encircling network-based transactions.

The agreement strengthens the probability that Mastercard would have mid- to high-teens percentage growth in VAS in the upcoming fiscal year, 2025, and is anticipated to close by the first quarter of 2025, according to the note.

Among other cybersecurity services, the New York-based payments company now provides its clients real-time decision-making and protection against identity fraud.

The government of 45 nations is among the approximately 1,900 clients that Recorded Future serves. In 2019, Insight Partners paid over $780 million in cash to take up a controlling stake in the company.