Behemoth in financial services Visa has completed its multimillion-dollar acquisition of Currencycloud. Currencycloud, which creates APIs for embedded B2B cross-border payments and currency exchange services, has collaborated with distributed ledger startup Ripple since July 2020.

CurrencyCloud is now owned by Visa.

Visa paid £700 million (equivalent to $930 million) for Currencycloud, which was announced on Tuesday. The purchase of Currencycloud by Visa is intended to improve transparency, flexibility, and speed for the two companies’ clients when making cross-border transfers or conducting foreign exchange business.

Visa and Currencycloud signed a definitive agreement in July of this year, and the acquisition of the London-based firm is now complete. It should be noted that the acquisition is based on an existing strategic partnership between the two companies, as Visa already has a stake in Currencycloud. Furthermore, Visa participated in the Currencycloud financing round last year, alongside other investors such as the Japanese financial conglomerate SBI.

Currencycloud joined Ripple’s payment network RippleNet earlier this year to investigate new international transaction mechanisms, with a focus on regions where regulatory policies stifle opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses.

Visa Looks To Revolutionize Digital Payments

Visa anticipates that digital assets will play a larger role in day-to-day payments in the future. As a result, the payments behemoth has taken critical steps in recent months to incorporate crypto services into its products.

Visa began directly settling digital currency transactions on the Ethereum blockchain using the USDC stablecoin in March. Visa spent 49.5 ETH on a CryptoPunk in August, which the firm’s head of crypto described as a great way to learn more about the booming NFT market firsthand. Meanwhile, amid a surge in client interest, the firm unveiled a new global crypto-centric consulting unit earlier this month.

Following the Currencycloud venture, Visa’s next logical step is to increase its involvement in the crypto industry.