Weavr and Visa collaborate to give merchant acquirers serving the travel sector a rapid turnkey route to issue industry-specific virtual card products, turning a potential source of risk into a new line of protection and revenue.
Weavr, the embedded finance company, has partnered with Visa to deliver a B2B travel product purpose-built for the travel value chain. The solution gives merchant acquirers a low-investment, rapid go-to-market path to issue Visa virtual cards, built around Visa products optimised for the travel sector.
Acquirers serving the travel sector already process payments on behalf of online travel agencies (OTAs), tour operators and other players within the travel value chain. What they have lacked is a simple way to add issuing capabilities that complement the acquiring activities. This matters because travel intermediaries that collect payments via card acquiring are often exposed to suffer losses should upstream travel service providers, notably airlines, fail to deliver the services sold to the customer. This can happen when airlines suffer disruption or outright failure.
By using virtual cards to procure these travel services, travel intermediaries are protected against these losses just like any cardholder, relying on the card scheme guarantee. This means that merchant acquirers will not only gain new revenue streams from issuing, but can also help insulate their travel intermediary customers against airline failure risk. The presence of this risk is often cited by merchant acquirers as the primary inhibitor in growing their travel exposure.
By embedding Weavr’s Visa-powered virtual card issuing, acquirers can now extend a best-in-class capability to the travel businesses they serve, without the cost and complexity of building it themselves.
Airline failure and supplier volatility remain a reality in the travel sector, leaving intermediaries and the acquirers that serve them exposed when paid-for services go undelivered. Virtual cards are a proven safeguard: because payments made on them carry chargeback rights, funds can typically be recovered even when a supplier ceases trading. The scale of that protection is significant, close to US$60 million has been recovered via chargebacks across 14 airline failures since 2017.¹
Tania Platt, Global Head of B2B Travel, Visa, said: “B2B travel remains one of the most dynamic and complex areas of payments, where speed, security and flexibility are critical. Virtual cards have become an increasingly important way to help streamline payment flows, improve operational efficiency, reduce reliance on working capital and manage risk across the travel value chain. By working with issuers like Weavr, we’re helping acquirers access and bring these capabilities to market faster, enabling them to better support the travel businesses that depend on seamless, secure and scalable payment solutions.”
“Merchant acquirers serving travel intermediaries have carried the sector’s risk for years without an easy way to turn it into an advantage,” said Alex Mifsud, CEO and Co-Founder of Weavr. “By embedding an optimised Visa virtual card product into their payment services, they get a best-in-class issuing capability with very little build and a fast route to market. It’s a low-investment way to protect their travel customers, open new revenue, and strengthen relationships across the value chain.”
To learn more about how Weavr is helping acquirers and travel platforms add issuing to acquiring, visit: www.weavr.io
Sources
- WEX, Protecting Travel Intermediaries from the Impacts of Airline Failures, 2025 (report produced in conjunction with Visa).
