Visa snaps up Brazilian payments platform Pismo for $1bn

Visa is buying a Brazilian payments platform for $1bn as the US card giant looks to increase its presence in Latin America.

Pismo is a payment processor and core banking platform with operations in Latin America, Asia Pacific and Europe.

The Brazilian startup, founded in 2016, has seen explosive growth in recent years.

It now processes $40bn in transaction volume annually, compared to less than $1bn per month in 2021.

Sao Paulo-based Pismo, which provides the technology through which clients can issue Visa and MasterCard cards, powers nearly 80 million accounts in total.

Its clients include Revolut, N26, Nubank and Citi.

"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," said Jack Forestell, chief product and strategy officer, Visa.

The deal marks Visa’s first major acquisition since 2021 when it acquired European open banking platform Tink for $2.2bn along with British cross-border payment providers Currencycloud.

The deal also marks the largest fintech exit in Latin America since Nubank went public in 2021.

As part of the deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year, Pismo will retain its current management team, Visa said.

To date, Pismo has raised over $110m from investors including SoftBank and Amazon.