Global: Visa and Mastercard reportedly in talks to acquire Pismo

Payments giants Visa and Mastercard are reportedly among a number of firms competing to acquire Brazilian payment and banking platform Pismo.

News reports state that the firm is working with Goldman Sachs on a potential sale at a reported valuation of $1 billion. Sources tell Bloomberg that other interested parties include a bank and a private equity firm, and that the talks may not result in a sale.

According to Valor Economico’s Pipeline, Visa submitted an initial offer of $1 billion which was rejected by Pismo, following which Visa upped its bid to $1.4 billion.

On reaching out, Pismo tells FinTech Futures that it “does not comment on market rumours”.

Founded in 2016 and based in São Paulo, Pismo offers a cloud-native platform for payment and banking services, including digital banking, core banking, cloud computing, card-issuing and digital wallets.

In October 2021, the firm raised $108 million in a Series B funding round from Amazon, SoftBank and Accel in a bid to expand its operations across Asia.