Visa’s acquisition of YellowPepper offered an early look at how the card network intended to expand beyond traditional card payments and build a broader money movement infrastructure. When the deal closed in 2020, YellowPepper brought Visa API-based technology designed to connect banks, processors, governments, and fintechs with multiple payment rails through a single connection.
Several years later, the strategic direction behind the Visa YellowPepper acquisition is much clearer. Visa has integrated YellowPepper into a larger Visa Direct portfolio that brings together capabilities spanning real-time payments, cross-border money movement, B2B payments, accounts, cards, and digital wallets. What began as an acquisition focused heavily on Latin America and the Caribbean has become part of Visa’s broader effort to serve as an infrastructure layer connecting different ways to move money.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 and has been updated with new context on how Visa’s acquisition of YellowPepper became part of its broader global money movement strategy.
The payments landscape has evolved far beyond traditional card processing, with major networks expanding into real-time payments, cross-border transactions, and open API platforms. Visa’s acquisition of YellowPepper reflects this broader strategy, strengthening its ability to connect banks, fintechs, and businesses through modern payment infrastructure. As payment ecosystems become increasingly interconnected, strategic acquisitions are playing a critical role in extending global payment capabilities and accelerating digital transformation.
Visa’s Acquisition of YellowPepper
This post appears in a news section of Nasdaq and is contributed by a member of The Motley Fool, an investment advisory of sorts. The piece is commentary about the recent Visa acquisition of YellowPepper, the Miami-based fintech that specializes in mobile banking and payments application for the LAC region.
The acquisition was actually announced in October and closed about a month later. There are no terms mentioned (nor were they in the original announcements) but one source had YellowPepper’s valuation at between $100-500 million as of late 2018.
Building Visa’s Network of Networks
As readers paying attention to the payments industry (and surely members of CEP) will know, the major cards networks have been expanding their roles into the broader payments space (most notably in B2B uses) now for several years through strategic acquisitions, partnerships, product development, value added services and positioning as a fintech. Their primary distribution channel remains banks but given the ‘network of networks’ goal, partnerships with other fintechs is core to the effort as well. So this move fits directly into that strategy.
‘In November 2020, Visa completed its acquisition of YellowPepper, a fintech company that enables real-time payments between card, account, and blockchain networks through a set of application programming interfaces (APIs). In other words, the company provides software that makes it easy for clients to send and receive various types of payments. YellowPepper CEO Serge Elkiner has explained the company in this way: “We’re a fintech helping banks keep an edge against big tech firms.” ‘
The author goes into some of the overall strategy and recent connective moves, such as the acquisition of Earthport in 2019. Two of the Visa products touted are Visa Direct, mostly a P2P and B2C play but applicable for small business uses cases as well, and Visa B2B Connect, a pure cross-border business payments play. Look for more of this going forward. Readers should browse the article.
‘Visa’s CEO also said the acquisition would allow for easier integration with Visa Direct and Visa B2B Connect. If that pans out, Visa could more aggressively target opportunities in B2B payments, disbursements (business- or government-to-consumer), and P2P transfers in Latin America — an $8 trillion market opportunity, according to management. In 2020, Visa Direct facilitated 3.5 billion transactions around the world, but this acquisition could drive that figure upwards in the years ahead. Likewise, Visa B2B Connect currently reaches 80 markets globally, but YellowPepper’s platform could help the product gain traction in new markets.’
Why It Matters Today
The original article highlighted Visa’s “network of networks” strategy, and subsequent developments have reinforced that direction. Visa announced in 2024 that it was combining capabilities that had previously operated as Visa Direct, Visa B2B Connect, Currencycloud, and YellowPepper into a unified Visa Direct money movement portfolio. It also introduced Visa Direct Connect as a single API integration intended to simplify access to multiple payment endpoints. Visa Corporate
The scale of that strategy has expanded considerably. Visa currently says its money movement capabilities reach more than 18 billion eligible cards, accounts, and digital wallets, cover more than 150 currencies, and extend across more than 195 countries and territories. The network connects with more than 90 domestic payment schemes, including more than 20 real-time payment schemes. Visa
YellowPepper therefore looks less like an isolated regional fintech acquisition in hindsight and more like one component of Visa’s transition from a card network toward a broader money movement platform.
Key Takeaways
- YellowPepper gave Visa API-based technology for connecting financial institutions and other organizations with multiple payment rails through a single integration. Visa
- Visa subsequently brought YellowPepper together with Visa Direct, Visa B2B Connect, and Currencycloud as part of a broader money movement portfolio. Visa Corporate
- Visa Direct now supports money movement across cards, accounts, and wallets and encompasses P2P, B2B, B2C, and other payment flows. Visa Corporate
- The evolution illustrates how major card networks can use acquisitions and APIs to expand beyond traditional card processing into multi-rail payment infrastructure.
The Visa YellowPepper acquisition ultimately anticipated a much larger transformation in Visa’s business. YellowPepper’s ability to connect different payment rails through APIs fit naturally with Visa’s ambition to provide a common access point for moving money across cards, bank accounts, wallets, and other networks.
What looked in 2021 like another step in Visa’s “network of networks” strategy has since developed into a much more expansive global money movement platform. For banks, fintechs, businesses, and governments, that evolution demonstrates how payment networks are increasingly competing not simply to process card transactions, but to provide the infrastructure connecting an increasingly diverse payments ecosystem.
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
