Ata Uzunhasan
Managing Director
Galata Business Angels
The growth platform
for Fintech stars.
One program. Three hubs. Borderless access.
The Visa Innovation Program is a fintech pilot-centered collaboration platform designed to help your startup scale, supercharge the value proposition and engage with Visa, its clients and partners.
Core Value Proposition
PoC/Partnership opportunities
Introduction to Visa and Visa’s clients to fast-track, test, validate and implement your solutions within Visa’s vast network of financial institutions and corporate partners.
Personal Concierge
Dedicated support by a prominent design thinking expert throughout the program to guide you and help with all of your business needs and PoC efforts.
Market Access
Access to new client base and business opportunities across Europe plus local support from our three hubs in Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey.
Funding
Connect with some of the leading VC funds in Europe backing fintech startups. The most promising companies could receive an investment offer from Eleven.
Mentorship
Top level industry mentors with diverse expertise and fintech experts from Visa to help you in the most essential aspects of your business.
Powerful Community
Masterclasses, workshops and peer to peer gatherings for practical knowledge exchange with a diverse entrepreneurial network of global fintech industry luminaries and investors.
Showcasing
Large exposure and access to top fintech and payment conferences as part of the Program.
Tech Stack
Startup perks (up to $200,000), essential tools and industry data, Visa’s tech infrastructure and API’s.
Applications are now open until April 15th
The Program in Numbers
900
+
Number of applications
70
+
Accepted Startups
70
Successful pilots
1300
Mentorship hours
80
+
Investment rounds
350
+
Million dollars raised by the fintechs
1
Unicorn
Program Partners
The Visa Innovation Program is run by the collective efforts of our local partners in Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. They bring their know-how, network, domain expertise and operational resources to make the Program a reality.
Eleven is one of the leading early-stage VC’s in Southeast Europe, investing in startups since 2012. With 150 collective investments over 7 years, Eleven’s team has been instrumental in catalyzing the regional startup ecosystem.
Crowdpolicy provides civictech and fintech enterprise information systems and open innovation services since 2012 in Greece and Cyprus. Over the years, the team has implemented various open innovation initiatives.
Hackquarters is the leading startup accelerator and corporate innovation partner, based in London and Istanbul, combining superb global reach with deep local knowledge.
The Timeline
The new application window for Cohort 5 will open soon, stay tuned!
Open call for Applications
Program Start
• Workshops
• Design Thinking sprints
• Design Thinking sprints
Demo Day
Selection
• Discovery sessions
• One-on-One meetings with PoC partners
• One-on-One meetings with PoC partners
• PoC/Pilot development
• Mentoring sessions
• Mentoring sessions
Challenges
We are looking for the best and brightest companies to address our challenges. The applicants need to provide proven solutions to drive innovation and technological advancement for Visa and Visa’s clients.
If you believe your company addresses one or more of the challenges, you are welcome to apply and become part of the Visa Innovation family.
Advancing next-gen payments experiences
Can you unleash the potential of new technologies and infrastructures to introduce innovative payment journeys in Personal Finance Management, Wealth Management, and Insurtech, increase operational efficiency with high-quality financial data or make real-time assessments to provide personalised offers? Are you leveraging:
- Blockchain technology (e.g. crypto-currencies, NFTs, smart contracts)
- Open banking / PSD2
- Digital wallets
- Installments, BNPL
Empowering SMEs
Are you targeting to accelerate the growth of SMEs and businesses through digital payments solutions to foster financial inclusion?
Are you focusing on:
- Online/In-store card acceptance and acquiring
- Tap to Phone
- Installments, credit scoring, POS financing, BNPL
- Digital onboarding for financial services
Special project with UBB: Introduce QR codes, payment requests, “pay by link” or other solution that could be embedded in the UBB mobile banking directly, or as stand-alone app.
Unlocking new payment flows
Are you ready to digitize cash intensive B2B, C2B, or B2C payments to create new commerce opportunities, utilizing solutions such as Visa Direct?
- Virtual payments credentials
- Funds disbursements (e.g. GIG economy, refunds, government payments, cross-border payments)
- Finance management platforms for businesses (e.g. payments, accounts, procurement)
Building a smart and sustainable future
Can you help enhance payments technology to contribute to the transition to an eco-friendly economy and to drive inclusiveness, reduce inequality and create positive impact for people, economies and the environment?
Are you working on:
- Urban mobility
- Government payments (e.g. Financial aid, social benefits, bill and tax payments)
- Interconnected services for citizens and tourists
- Financial education
Who Should Apply
If your team has already completed a proof of concept related to the proposed challenges or has a market-ready solution, you are the right fit for the Visa Innovation Program.
01
Stage
Startups and scale ups having a market-tested solution
02
Team
An experienced team with entrepreneurial spirit
03
Solution
A solution addressing one of our Challenges
04
Commitment
Dedication for pilot collaboration with banks and enterprises
Testimonials
“The largest value of the program was access to the global network of partners, customers and a startup ecosystem. Iris Solutions pivoted from a B2C to B2B solutions company. We verified a fully new effective business model and strategy.”
Galya Dimitrova
CEO
Iris Solutions
“The program was pivotal in establishing key partnerships with Visa partners and Visa’s network and exploring new service lines for very small businesses. During the program duration we managed to expand our merchant outlets from 1100 to 1500 with promising collaborations in place and an extended contact network.”
Evangelos Rossetos
Co-founder
Simply POS
“The Program helped us to develop our product for small and medium enterprises with leading experts from San Francisco and London. A key step in our growth is the opening of our office in Berlin, located next to the Visa Innovation Center in Germany.”
Hristo Borisov
Co-founder and CEO
Payhawk
"We always want to work with market leaders like VISA and the banks that participate in the program. Connecting with experts is critical in accelerating our development and our market reach. Through the Visa Innovation Program we were able to get access to the banks and present our solution to key stakeholders across major financial institutions. VIP has helped us accelerate this process, and as a founder this is one of the most important and tough tasks."
Dimitris Kalavasis
CEO
RoadCube Inc
“This program gave us a unique opportunity to accelerate our product to market alongside some of the best mentors and leaders in the business. We also received the partnership with Raiffeisen Bank to build, test and create the future of payments with new biometric technologies that have never been done before on the Bulgarian market.”
Mihai Draghici
Founder & CEO
Paybyface
“Visa Innovation Program provided us with the support, motivation and partnerships from Visa’s wider network we needed to overcome the obstacles we faced and eventually launch our product for a PoC in the Greek market.”
Elena Avatangelou
Co-founder, Service & Product Design
Giving Streets
“The program was pivotal in establishing Glocalzone’s key partnerships with Visa and Visa’s network and entering new markets. What’s more, we grew our customer base from 10 to 150k users and our valuation increased 4 times during the period we were in the program.”
Doğan Turan
Co-founder
Glocalzone
‘’The tailor-made format of the Program and our personal design thinking concierge’s support allowed us to stay focused on our core business while working on a very practical case for Visa Direct’s integration in Fondy’s underlying technology. That’s invaluable when you run an international company and have to deal with multiple challenges as a founder."
Valeria Vahorovska
CEO
Fondy
“The largest value of the program was access to the huge network of partners, customers and a startup ecosystem. We are able to keep up with the current trends, identify new opportunities and connect with startups and teams that are changing the financial world around us. Keep up the good work!”
Konstantinos Vaitsas
Head of Digital Innovation
Alpha Bank
“The largest value of the program was access to the huge network of partners, customers and a startup ecosystem. We are able to keep up with the current trends, identify new opportunities and connect with startups and teams that are changing the financial world around us. Keep up the good work!”
George Panou
Head Of Innovation Center
Eurobank
Network
Some of Our Mentors
Athina Chatzipetrou
Chief Executive Officer
Hellenic Development Bank SA
George Panou
Head of Innovation Center
Eurobank
Goh Hirose
Innovation and Investment Leader
BNP Paribas Cardiff
Marcel Dridje
Board Member
European Business Angels Network
Mariela Atanassova
Head of PI Business Division
Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria
Marisa Melliou
Group Audit Director
OPAP
Maximilian Schausberger
Managing Director
Elevator Ventures
Nedelcho Spasov
Co-founder
Management Financial Group
Nicolas Nicola
Director - Strategic Corporate Projects for Banking & Payments
THALES
Professor Markos Zachariadis
Greensill Chair in Financial Technology
Alliance Manchester Business School
Sevdalina Vassileva
General Manager (Israel, Greece, Cyprus, Malta)
Svetozar Georgiev
Co-founder
Telerik Academy & Campus X
Yonatan Pinto
Business Development & Communications Director
Baker McKenzie
Some of Our Partner Banks
