ACI Worldwide to Add Microservices Card Switching Through Cranium Acquisition

ACI Worldwide has agreed to acquire Cranium Ventures, a privately held developer of cloud-native card payment switching technology, as it seeks to expand its card-processing capabilities.

The Omaha, Nebraska, payments technology company said Tuesday (Sept. 1) in a press release that it will incorporate Cranium’s microservices-based switching framework, SYNAP, into ACI Connetic for Cards. ACI launched the card platform in March as part of ACI Connetic, its cloud-native payments orchestration platform.

ACI said the acquisition will accelerate its existing roadmap for ACI Connetic for Cards and bring planned card-switching capabilities to market sooner. Its acquiring, issuing, ATM and self-service banking solutions process more than 300 billion card transactions annually, according to the company.

Cranium, founded in the U.K. in 2018, operates in the U.K., Singapore and Malaysia. Its SYNAP framework is designed to run in cloud, on-premises and hybrid environments, according to ACI. The company developed the technology for banks, processors and payment service providers.

The transaction will include Cranium’s technology, intellectual property and commercial relationships. Cranium co-founders Ashraf Dimitri and Tony Horrell are expected to join ACI, while ACI said it will support Cranium’s existing SYNAP customers after the deal closes.

“Card processing is one of the hardest modernization problems left in payments, and we have been working on it for years,” ACI President and Chief Executive Thomas Warsop said in the release. He said financial institutions need intelligence throughout the payment life cycle in addition to a switch.

The deal comes as global card purchase transactions are projected to exceed 1.1 trillion in 2029, up 43% from 2024, according to data cited by ACI from The Nilson Report. ACI said payment institutions are also operating more payment rails in parallel, while card authorization at many banks and processors continues to rely on older infrastructure.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions and approvals and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, ACI said.

The deal is part of a broader push by ACI to reshape and expand its payments business. PYMNTS reported in July that ACI was considering a sale of its billing division, while the company acquired open banking and financial messaging provider Payment Components in 2025 and planned to integrate its technology into ACI Connetic.