Mastercard’s latest acquisition aims to boost the company’s insights and intelligence capabilities with real-time visibility into potential threats, AI and other best-in-class technologies.

Mastercard acquired the world’s largest threat intelligence company Recorded Future from Insight Partners for $2.65 billion.

Recorded Future has more than 1,900 clients across 75 countries. Its customer base includes the governments of 45 countries and over 50% of the Fortune 100 companies.

The acquisition of the threat intelligence firm strengthens Mastercard’s identity, fraud prevention, real-time decisions and cybersecurity services. Their combined AI capabilities enable the payment provider to analyze billions of data points, identify potential threats, introduce even more robust fraud detection practices and drive greater synergies in cybersecurity and intelligence.

At the same time, Mastercard’s global reach and vast customer base open additional opportunities for Recorded Future’s business expansion.

The two companies are already piloting an AI-supported service that alerts financial institutions with greater speed and accuracy about a potential card compromise. The service launched earlier this year and has already doubled the rate of compromised card identification compared to the same period last year.

“Trust is the foundation of any relationship. Recorded Future adds to how we deliver that greater peace of mind before, during and after the payment transaction. Together we will innovate faster, create smarter models and anticipate emerging threats before cyberattacks can take place – in payments and beyond.”

Craig Vosburg, chief services officer at Mastercard

The transaction is expected to be finalised by the first quarter of 2025. It is still subject to regulatory review and other customary closing conditions.

Recorded Future continues the list of Mastercard’s recent acquisitions in the segment of cybersecurity and threat intelligence. Earlier, Mastercard acquired the cloud-based cybersecurity company Baffin Bay Networks, with its new AI ‘Cyber Shield’ solution, and RiskRecon, a provider of artificial intelligence and data analytics solutions for cybersecurity.