Mastercard Acquires Global Threat Intelligence Firm Recorded Future

In an effort to bolster the insights and intelligence used to secure today’s digital economy, Mastercard has agreed to acquire global threat intelligence company Recorded Future from Insight Partners for $2.65bn. 

Recorded Future is one of the world’s largest threat intelligence companies, with more than 1900 clients across 75 countries, including the governments of 45 countries and over 50% of the Fortune 100.

AI-Power at the Center of Acquisition

AI-powered analytics is at the center of the technology approach both companies use in the cybersecurity sector.

Recorded Future uses AI-powered analytics to generate insights that are accessible to and understood by customers. 

Mastercard said the real-time visibility into potential threats provided by Recorded Future will complement Mastercard’s identity, fraud prevention, real-time decisioning and cybersecurity services.

Recorded Future and Mastercard already collaborate on an AI-supported service that alerts financial institutions more quickly and with greater accuracy when a card is likely to have been compromised.

Since launching this service earlier this year, Mastercard said rates in which compromised cards are identified have doubled, as compared to the same period last year.

Recorded Future’s Founder Reflects on 15 Years of Innovation

Recorded Future’s journey began in 2007 when a patent application was first written for what later became the Recorded Future Intelligence Platform.

“Fifteen years ago, we created Recorded Future with a simple goal to secure the world with intelligence. By joining Mastercard, we see an opportunity to help more businesses and governments determine the steps to realize their full potential – and to enable everyone to feel safer in their daily lives,” said Christopher Ahlberg, CEO of Recorded Future.

Insight Partners acquired Recorded Future in 2019 for $780m.

Speaking on X (Twitter), Ahlberg reinforced the company’s commitment to its customers and said its capacity to deliver will increase.

He said the company will remain an “independent and open” intelligence platform.    

The transaction, which is anticipated to close by the first quarter of 2025, is subject to regulatory review and other customary closing conditions.

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