Visa

Intro and history: Visa Inc. is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Foster City, California. It was founded in 1958 by Dee Hock and is one of the world's largest electronic funds transfer companies. Visa provides digital payment solutions to consumers, businesses, banks, and governments, enabling them to use digital currency instead of cash and checks. Industry: Financial Services Product, Services and Operations: Visa offers a wide range of services including credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, and payment solutions for businesses. They also provide services for merchants, including payment processing and fraud protection. Visa operates one of the world's most advanced processing networks, VisaNet, capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. Funding Details: As a publicly-traded company, Visa is funded through equity and debt financing. As of 2021, its market capitalization is over $450 billion. Acquisitions: Notable acquisitions include Plaid, a fintech company, in 2020 for $5.3 billion, and CyberSource, a payment gateway, in 2010 for $2 billion. Awards and Achievements: Visa has received numerous awards and recognitions, including being named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere for six consecutive years, and one of Fortune's Most Admired Companies for three consecutive years.