Visa Acquires Newpay and Prisma from Advent

Advent International is set to sell Prisma Medios de Pago (Prisma) and Newpay in Argentina to Visa. Newpay is the infrastructure provider of the Banelco ATM network in addition to the bill payment platform PagoMisCuentas.

Prisma, Newpay and Payway are businesses that resulted in the strategic transformation of Advent. The sale does not affect Payway, Advent’s merchant acquiring business, which will remain as a standalone business. 

The acquisition supports Visa’s client commitment as the acquisition sees a rollout of high-tech financial tools, bolstering the adoption of innovative payment solutions for both consumers and businesses across Argentina. 

Prisma currently serves as a vital engine for Argentina’s financial sector, processing more than six billion transactions annually for the nation’s leading banks.

Its counterpart, Newpay, provides the underlying architecture for real-time account-to-account payments – including the "Transferencias 3.0" initiative – and manages the Banelco ATM network alongside the electronic bill payment platform PagoMisCuentas.

The acquisition is designed to pair this scaled local presence with Visa’s international reach. Once the deal is closed, the combined entities intend to fast-track the rollout of high-tech financial tools, including biometric authentication, tokenisation and agentic commerce solutions.

“This acquisition is an important step for Visa in Argentina, strengthening our client partnerships and advancing innovation across the payments ecosystem,” notes Ryan McInerney, CEO of Visa.

“By bringing together Prisma’s and Newpay’s deep local expertise with Visa’s global solutions and technology, we will empower our clients to make payments simpler, faster, and more secure for consumers and businesses.”

Advent International on evolution 

For Advent International, the sale represents the culmination of a “value creation agenda” that transformed a legacy payments business into modern, independent platforms. Since 2008, Advent has committed US$9.4bn to 18 payments companies globally, including recent investments in Nuvei and Mangopay.

Juan Pablo Zucchini, a Managing Partner at Advent says: “This transaction reflects the strength of the platforms the Prisma team has built and the valuable role they play in Argentina’s payments ecosystem. We believe Visa is well positioned to support the continued evolution and long-term success of Prisma and Newpay, and remain excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for Payway.”

The road ahead for Payway

As Visa takes the reins of the processing and infrastructure assets, Payway will move forward as an independent growth platform. It plans to focus on embedded financial services, QR payments and advanced fraud security to capture the shift away from cash.

Martin Kaplan, CEO of the Group, who will remain as Payway’s CEO, notes: “Advent has played a central role in helping to shape our value creation agenda, which has focused on technology modernisation and product innovation, alongside continuous improvements in service quality, reliability, and client experience, all designed around supporting clients and long-term partnerships.

“We’re thrilled to continue working with the Advent team, and see significant long-term potential in Payway as a standalone platform, supported by the continued digitisation of Argentina’s economy, a steady shift from cash to electronic payments, and increasing demand for advanced merchant solutions.”

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026.