Visa Plants Deeper Roots in Silicon Valley with New Office

Visa plans to open a facility in Palo Alto, Calif., the latest in a series of technology-focused facilities designed to cement the card brand's role in the world of payments innovation.

The 62,000 square foot space will combine office and collaboration areas for 300 employees focused on research, business intelligence, security and merchant services.

Visa already has a substantial corporate footprint in the Bay Area, including offices in Foster City and San Francisco. The card brand has also opened several technology-focused facilities in recent months, including a development center in Bangalore and innovation centers in Dubai, Miami, San Francisco and Singapore.

Visa and Mastercard are both vigorously adding new technology resources, tapping the expertise of both internal researchers and external programmers. The effort is to not only tap trends in mobile payments and faster processing, but also offer a broader range of services as payments becomes commoditized.

In many cases, the card networks are opening development facilities near existing technology hubs in India, Europe and North America to tap into an existing local infrastructure.

"Our new Palo Alto office allows us to draw on the diversity of the Bay Area talent pool and build an even stronger connection with the Silicon Valley community of data scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs," said Rajat Taneja, executive vice president of technology for Visa in a July 25 release.