Visa has agreed a £142 million deal to buy Fraedom, an SaaS technology firm that provides payments and transaction management tools to banks and their corporate customers.
The move comes as Fraedom's current owner, business travel company Hogg Robinson, agreed a deal to be acquired by American Express Global Business Travel for nearly £400 million.
Fraedom has been a Visa partner for nearly ten years, and its technology underlies Visa IntelliLink Spend Management, a core platform for the card giant's commercial and small-business clients.
Launched in 1999, London-headquartered Fraedom has managed over one billion transactions through its web-based platform, with its technology used by over 173,000 organisations.
Visa says the deal, set to close this quarter, will strengthen and expand its business suite of tools to meet the needs of the B2B payments industry.
Vicky Bindra, global head, products and solutions, Visa, says: "This strategic acquisition allows Visa to offer a more comprehensive business solution to our corporate clients that is innovative, global, highly configurable and intuitive for their employees."