Visa Innovation Program Europe Portugal Edition Summit 2025: Insights, Dialogue & Momentum
On 27 November 2025, the Visa Innovation Program Europe Portugal Edition Summit brought together fintech founders, ecosystem players, corporate partners, and Visa leaders at Fintech House Lisboa for a day shaped by practical insights, candid conversations, and genuine collaboration.
This year’s Portugal Edition reinforced the country’s growing influence within the Iberian fintech landscape, driven by ambitious founders, a fast-maturing ecosystem, and increasing appetite for innovation across financial institutions. The 2025 Edition reflects the program’s mission: helping fintechs refine their products, strengthen their market positioning, and develop meaningful partnerships that support commercial scale.
The 2025 Portugal Edition, delivered jointly with Spain, reflected strong ecosystem participation and meaningful progress for this year’s cohort:
74 applications across the Spain & Portugal cluster
6 selected fintechs innovating in data, loyalty, financial well-being, embedded finance & digital payments
50+ mentorship hours
50+ hours of mentorship delivered
57 curated introductions with banks, corporates, and ecosystem partners
3 partnerships formed during the cycle
These achievements underscore the program’s continued role as a catalyst for innovation in Spain — helping fintechs refine their value propositions, validate with leading institutions, and prepare for commercial expansion across Iberia.
Since 2022, Visa Innovation Program Europe in Spain & Portugal has achieved:
74 applications across Spain & Portugal
6 selected fintechs shaping solutions in finance, wealth, loyalty, and embedded journeys
50+ mentorship hours
57 curated introductions
3 partnerships established during the program
These achievements highlight the program’s ongoing role as a catalyst for fintech growth in Portugal — supporting founders as they strengthen their products, build institutional alignment, and move toward scalable commercial opportunities.
386 applications
28 selected fintechs
150+ mentorship hours
399 introductions
120+ PoC partners
The summit opened with Rita Mendes Coelho (Visa), who provided updates on the 2025 Edition and highlighted Portugal’s role within the broader Spain & Portugal cluster.
The first founder conversation brought together Sofia Serrano (Doutor Finanças), Domingos Bruges (Habit), moderated by Ricardo Ameida (Visa). They spoke openly about early product refinement, validating assumptions with institutions, and shaping offerings around real customer behaviours — spotlighting the opportunities and challenges of building for Portugal’s financial ecosystem.
The founder sessions continued with Carmen Alonso (Card-Dynamics) in conversation with Enrique Araque (Visa). Alonso spoke about the opportunities of building at the infrastructure layer of payments and highlighted the value of VIPE’s partner access —
“When Visa makes the introduction, the door opens immediately.”
She also emphasized the collaborative spirit within the founder community, calling it “a sense of shared success.”
The next conversation featured Catarina Nunes (Starkdata) with Melihcan Yücel (Visa). Nunes shared Starkdata’s path from early exploration to validated use cases, illustrating what it takes to align technical capabilities with institutional requirements and turn interest into adoption.
After the break, Rogério Canhoto (Automaise) delivered a keynote on the rise of AI agents and their growing presence in real operations. He outlined where AI agents already support high-cost workflows, streamline processes, and enhance decision-making, and what an effective “AI-first” roadmap requires.
Following this, Marta Aguirre (Visa) expanded on Agentic AI’s role across payments and commerce. She highlighted how financial institutions are increasingly using agent-based systems and how Visa’s infrastructure supports more adaptive, real-time workflows and emerging B2B use cases.
Continuing the AI lens, Adrian Trache (Visa) introduced Visa Intelligent Commerce and the shift toward Agentic Commerce. He explained how rising engagement with GenAI is reshaping expectations and how Visa’s AI-enabled services, programmable payments, and trusted agent frameworks are preparing the ecosystem for more autonomous digital interactions.
Bringing an external market perspective, Joao Freire de Andrade (Portugal Fintech) shared a concise overview of Portugal’s investment environment — from funding dynamics to the increased presence of international investors — and highlighted the areas where fintechs are gaining the most traction.
Looking Ahead
With 74 applications, 6 selected fintechs, 50+ hours of mentorship, 57 introductions, and 3 successful partnerships, the Spain & Portugal Edition demonstrated strong performance across all program pillars and solidified its position as one of VIPE’s most active and collaboration-focused markets.
As the Visa Innovation Program Europe continues to scale—now active across 15 markets in Europe, including its recent expansion into the Nordics and Baltics—Spain and Portugal remain important anchors within the Iberian region. Since joining VIPE, both markets have strengthened their ecosystem presence, connecting startups with banks, corporates, and Visa partners, and enabling pilots and commercial opportunities across Southern Europe.
In 2025, the Spain & Portugal fintechs delivered meaningful progress while also marking several key milestones for the region:
The Starkdata + Figg Wealth collaboration set a new benchmark for AI-driven data and wealth-insight integrations.
Doutor Finanças advanced its mission of improving financial well-being by strengthening its position as one of Portugal’s most trusted consumer finance platforms and expanding its presence into Spain.
Spain and Portugal continue to play an essential role in VIPE’s mission — empowering ambitious founders, accelerating commercial readiness, and driving the next wave of financial innovation across the region.
Founder Testimonials: What Portugal Fintechs Say About VIPE
A signature element of the Visa Innovation Program Europe is the experience of the founders themselves. Below are reflections from participating fintechs in the 2025 cycle:
Carmen Alonso, Card-Dynamics
When I joined this startup after a lifetime in corporates, I wondered how I was going to sell. You have to introduce yourself, explain what you do, follow up without getting replies — it’s tough. This program gave me two game-changing things: first, the Visa support. Belonging to the Visa Innovation Program means people listen; you get meetings, access to decision makers, and introductions that are absolutely critical. Second, the network — the fintech founders in the program have supported each other so much. We shared advice, helped one another scale — that sense of community has been an incredible gift. It’s truly been an amazing journey.
Domingo Bruges, Habit
As a company deeply rooted in the insurtech space, payments and collections started as operational needs. Through the Visa Innovation Program’s mentorship, we realized how strategic these areas truly are. Their guidance helped us strengthen those aspects of our product, while the introductions to potential clients greatly accelerated our growth.
Hugo Rosa, Doutor Finanças
We have a clear long-term vision of where we want to be in ten years. The program gave us valuable insights into the fintech ecosystem, built meaningful connections, and introduced us to outstanding partners we are now actively engaging with.
Meet the VIPE 2025 | Spain & Portugal Edition Fintechs!
Secure data-sharing infrastructure that simplifies customer onboarding, authentication, and payment-method updates.
A financial well-being platform offering guidance and brokerage services to help individuals make better financial decisions.
An AI-powered wealth platform aggregating data from 2,000+ institutions to deliver real-time portfolio insights.
Digital insurance solutions developed with partners and embedded into user journeys to increase accessibility.