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.
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 Europe.
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
1000
+
Applications
80
Selected Fintech Companies
78
Successful Proof-of-Concepts
1000
Mentorship Hours
91
+
Investor introductions
€
200
m+
Funding Raised*
*Funding raised by the participating Fintech companies after joining the program either independently or through connections of Program Managers (Eleven and Hackquarters by Tenity)
Program Managers
The Visa Innovation Program Europe 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.
Fintech District is the gateway to the Italian Fintech Ecosystem, gathering the largest Fintech and Techfin community in Italy. It enables connections and innovation opportunities among all the stakeholders in its network- composed by fintech companies, big banks and financial institutions, corporate companies, professional partners, regulators, investors and international hubs – to foster and drive Open Innovation.
The Timeline
Open call for Applications
Program Start
• Workshops
• Design Thinking sprints
• Design Thinking sprints
Graduation Event
Selection
• Discovery sessions
• One-on-One meetings with PoC partners
• One-on-One meetings with PoC partners
• PoC/Pilot development
• Mentoring sessions
• 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 themes, you are welcome to apply and become part of the Visa Innovation Program Europe family.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Next-gen payment experiences
Are you exploring how AI tools can level up financial products and services? Can you unleash the potential of new technologies and infrastructures to introduce innovative commerce and payment journeys, increase operational efficiencies, enable digital onboarding of consumers and businesses, improve fraud and risk management capabilities; including?
- AI powered risk and fraud solutions
- Digital wallets
- Super app components
- Data enrichment
- Personal finance (PFM) and wealth management
- Payments in Metaverse
- Crypto / Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), DeFi applications
Embedded Finance and Commerce Empowerment
Can you facilitate cash displacement in B2C and B2B commerce models? Are you enabling integration of financial services into non-financial businesses through APIs and platforms in various sectors (e.g. GIG economy, travel & entertainment, shipping & logistics, lifestyle, healthcare, proptech, agriculture, sports). Do you revolutionize?
- Open banking
- Instalments, credit scoring, POS financing, BNPL
- Payment infrastructure enablers
- Customer acquisition, loyalty, and engagement
- Authentication, digital onboarding, and KYC
- Expense / ERP management solutions
- Merchant/retail and SME targeted solutions
Money Movement Flows
Are you ready to digitize cash intensive P2P, B2C, B2B, B2b, G2C payments to create new commerce opportunities for consumers and businesses?
- Funds disbursements (e.g. Social commerce, earned wage, refunds, remittances, government payments)
- Finance management platforms for businesses (e.g. payments, accounts, procurement)
- Supply chain payments
- Treasury/Payment-as-a-Service
Sustainable and Inclusive Future
Can you help enhance payments technology to contribute to the transition to an eco-friendly economy and to foster financial inclusion, reduce inequality and create positive impact for people, economies and the environment? Are you working on:
- Urban mobility (e.g. EV charging)
- 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 card
- Impact management and measurement
- Impact Investing
2024 Edition Fintech Companies
Testimonials
"The Visa Innovation Program team is like family to us! We’ve worked with the Visa team since Divilo was founded, and so far, I can only say good things about them. They have opened doors we would never have crossed if they had not helped us. Thank you!
Visa Innovation Program Europe - Spain Edition'22"
Juan Guruceta
Founder
Divilo
“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
“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 Visa Innovation Program brought unparalleled value to our company. Throughout our collaboration with Eleven Ventures we managed to improve our value proposition, tailor the product towards different customer personas and experiment with business models. We were introduced to new clients, but most importantly, we managed to sign our first pilot project in less than two months.”
Catalin Rus
Co-founder and COO
Prime Dash
“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
“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
Participating in the Visa Innovation Program before our MVP launch was invaluable. It's the ultimate program for fintech companies, offering close monitoring and support for your growth, extensive local and international networking opportunities, and streamlined B2B partnerships. A must for any fintech founder!
Hilmi Kaya
Co-Founder
Yancep
“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 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
“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
‘’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
