Visa Europe Buys Stake in Beyond Analysis

In the UK, Visa Europe has taken a minority stake in customer insight group Beyond Analysis, with the aim of strengthening its data analytics capabilities. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Visa Europe says that over £1 in every £4 spent in the UK is spent on one of its debit, credit or prepaid cards, and more than 11 billion transactions are processed from across Europe each year, providing the company with 'unrivalled insight' into consumer spending patterns.

Founded in 2007 by former dunnhumby directors Paul Alexander and William Beresford, Beyond Analysis uses transaction data to provide clients with a holistic view of their customers' lives. The firm is headquartered in London, with Asia Pacific operations based in Sydney, Australia.

Following this investment, Beyond Analysis says it will deepen its existing work with Visa Europe to help manage its clients' loyalty programmes, and provide advanced analytics and insight based on the spending patterns captured by card transactions.

As part of the deal, Visa Europe's CMO Mariano Dima joins the Beyond Analysis Board of Directors. The company's President and CEO Peter Ayliffe says that enhanced data analytics forms a 'key part' of Visa Europe's vision for the future of payments alongside new technology such as mobile payments and e-wallets.

Alexander adds: 'We are delighted to be joining forces with our long term partner Visa Europe. We bring to the table not just our expertise in transforming a massive pool of data into business-ready patterns, trends and synergies, but the ability to turn information into insight, intelligence and creative campaigns that drive competitive advantage and customer-centric business decisions.

Web sites: www.beyondanalysis.info and www.visaeurope.com .