The growth platform
for Fintech companies.
The Visa Innovation Program is a fintech pilot-centered collaboration platform designed to help your company scale and engage with Visa, its clients and partners.
Visa Innovation Program Europe is in search of the fintech companies that have the highest potential to partner and conduct pilot or proof of concepts with Visa clients and partners, therefore your capabilities should be go-to-market ready for the country you are applying to. We can support market expansion needs on a per case basis and other opportunities beyond.
Additionally, you will benefit from curated training, mentorship and introductions to selected investors.
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.
Market Access
Access to new client base and business opportunities across Southern Europe (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Turkey)
Powerful Community
Mentorships, masterclasses, workshops and peer to peer gatherings for practical knowledge exchange with a diverse entrepreneurial network of global fintech industry experts and investors.
Funding
Connect with some of the leading VC funds in Europe backing fintech startups.
Showcasing
Large exposure and access to top fintech and payment conferences as part of the Program.
Tech Stack
Startup perks, essential tools, industry data, tech infrastructure.
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.
Mentorship
Top level industry mentors with diverse expertise and fintech experts from Visa to help you in the most essential aspects of your business.
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.
Stage
Startups and scale ups having a market-tested solution
Team
An experienced team with entrepreneurial spirit
Solution
A solution addressing one of our Challenges
Commitment
Dedication for pilot collaboration with banks and enterprises
The Program in Numbers
*Funding raised by the participating Fintech companies after joining the program either independently or through connections of Program Managers (Eleven, Crowdpolicy, and Hackquarters).
Program Partners
The Visa Innovation Program is run by the collective efforts of our local partners in Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, Spain, Portugal and Italy. They bring their know-how, network, domain expertise and operational resources to make the Program a reality.
Main program managers
Eleven is one of the leading early-stage VC’s in Southeast Europe, investing in startups since 2012. With 150 collective investments over 10 years, Eleven’s team has been instrumental in catalyzing the regional startup ecosystem.
Hackquarters is the leading startup accelerator and corporate innovation partner, based in London and Istanbul, combining superb global reach with deep local knowledge.
Local ecosystem partners

Finnovating is the first Matching platform that connects 70K Tech startups, corporations and investors globally. The platform has created the largest community where its members from 125 active countries can easily connect and collaborate with potential partners to lead innovation, as well as find clients and connect with the best service providers and solutions of the ecosystem.

Fintech Solutions is the innovation agency dedicated to build the future of financial services by connecting financial institutions to the fintech ecosystem. Being part of Portugal Fintech, Fintech Solutions has extensive understanding of the European fintech and incumbent ecosystem and how both sides can collaborate.

Endeavor is the leading global community of, by, and for High-Impact Entrepreneurs — those who dream bigger, scale faster, and pay it forward. Driven by our belief that High-Impact Entrepreneurs transform economies, Endeavor is on a mission to build thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging and underserved markets around the world.

Talent Garden is Europe’s leading digital skills academy that has combined work life and learning to empower people and organisations through transformative experiences. We teach digital skills at the forefront of innovation and enable powerful connections in the digital ecosystem to support the implementation of a growth mindset.
The Timeline
9 May - Greece, Cyprus and Malta;
27 April - Spain and Portugal;
4 May - Italy
• Design Thinking sprints
• One-on-One meetings with PoC partners
• Mentoring sessions
Themes
We are looking for the best and brightest companies to address our themes. 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, increase operational efficiency with high-quality financial data or make real-time assessments? Are you enabling solutions around:
- Payments experiences in the metaverse
- Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
- DeFi applications
- Crypto risk, fraud and intelligence
- Open banking
- Digital wallets
Empowering Merchants and SMEs
Are you targeting to accelerate the growth of merchants and SMEs through digital payment solutions to foster financial inclusion? Are you focusing on:
- Next-generation omni-channel and face-to-face payments
- Installments, credit scoring, POS financing, BNPL
- Digital onboarding for financial services
- Seller onboarding and KYC solutions
- Merchant loyalty and engagement
- Working capital optimisation

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 P2P, B2C, B2B, B2b, G2C payments to create new commerce opportunities?
- Funds disbursements (e.g. Social commerce, the creator economy, refunds, government payments, cross-border payments/remittances)
- Finance management platforms for businesses (e.g. payments, accounts, procurement)
- Virtual payments credentials
- Supply chain payments, supplier onboarding and KYC
- Treasury/Payment-as-a-Service
- Payment infrastructure enablers
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
- Carbon footprint / carbon neutral
- Sustainable finance / commerce / payment cards
- Impact management and measurement
- Impact Investing
Embedded Finance
Are you creating advanced intelligence to enhance payment and finance experiences in B2C and B2B commerce models?
- Instalments and flexible financing models
- Consumer loyalty and rewards
- Pre-and-post transaction engagement (e.g. sustainability tracking, transaction controls, PFM)
- Authentication solutions
- Banking/Fintech-as-a-Service
- B2B platform enablers
Testimonials










Network
Mentors
Berkay Yavuz
Elina Karpatcheva
Evan Kotsovinos
Gilles De Clerck
Marcel Dridje
Peny Rizou
Sevdalina Vassileva
Takis Georgakopoulos
Zornica Yanakieva
Partner Banks









