Visa Innovation Program Europe Spain & Portugal Edition Summit 2025: A Look Back at a Dynamic Gathering
On 25 November 2025, the Visa Innovation Program Europe Spain Edition Summit gathered founders, ecosystem partners, corporates, and Visa leaders at Estudio Zénit in Madrid for a day of practical insights, open dialogue, and collaborative energy.
This year’s edition highlighted Spain’s growing influence in Europe’s fintech landscape, shaped by ambitious founders, strong institutions, and a shared commitment to scalable innovation. With a focus on AI-enabled finance, embedded services, digital payments, and customer-centric design, the program continues to offer founders structured support, expert mentorship, and opportunities to validate and expand their solutions.
The 2025 Spain Edition delivered strong engagement and tangible outcomes across its program pillars:
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:
386 applications
28 selected fintechs,
150+ mentorship hours
399 introductions
120+ PoC partners
Spain & Portugal at a Glance: 2025 Edition Performance
The 2025 Spain Edition delivered strong engagement and measurable outcomes across its core program pillars:
74 applications from fintechs across Spain, Portugal, and Europe
6 selected fintechs shaping themes in financial education, embedded finance, wealth insights, data intelligence & loyalty
50+ hours of mentorship supporting product, strategy, and GTM development
57 introductions to Visa partners, corporates, and financial institutions
3 successful partnerships established during the program
These results underline the Spain Edition’s growing relevance as a strategic hub for early-stage validation, market understanding, and partnership development within the Iberian financial ecosystem.
The day opened with remarks from Eduardo Prieto (Country Manager, Visa Spain), who highlighted Spain’s role within VIPE and shared updates on the 2025 Edition.
The first panel, moderated by Melihcan Yücel (Visa), featured Cian Speers (LoyalBe) and Carmen Alonso (Card-Dynamics). The discussion explored how fintechs stand out in competitive markets, align products with real customer behaviours, and interpret early traction to shape long-term strategy.
In the second panel, moderated by Enrique Araque (Visa), Miguel Linera (Silk), Hugo Rosa Ferreira (Doutor Finanças), Domingos Bruges (Habit) reflected on product development, and market validation. Together, they highlighted new opportunities emerging across Iberia and the importance of strong partnerships.
The program continued with a keynote from Elena González-Blanco GarcÃa (Microsoft), who outlined the shift from Generative AI to Agentic AI and introduced Microsoft Copilot as a practical example of how autonomous systems are already reshaping workflows and customer experiences.
Collaboration was at the forefront in a session with Marta Aguirre (Visa) and Catarina Nunes (Starkdata). Nunes shared Starkdata’s growth journey, detailing how the team validated use cases with financial institutions and refined its product for real operational needs.
A forward-looking discussion moderated by Shamil Indrakumar (Visa) brought together José Luis Nevado (Sipay) and Jordi Nebot Carda (Paynopain Solutions). They discussed evolving merchant expectations, digital commerce behaviours, and the role of collaboration and interoperability in Spain’s next wave of payments innovation.
In the final segment, Elena Tamarit (Visa Spain) introduced Gustavo MartÃnez Gutiérrez (Visa), who presented Visa Intelligent Commerce. Gustavo outlined how AI-powered capabilities, real-time data, and next-generation payment tools are helping merchants and financial institutions create more adaptive, insight-driven experiences as customer expectations and digital behaviours continue to evolve.
The summit concluded with Montserrat Lerena (Visa), who emphasized the value of strong ecosystem ties and reinforced the mission guiding both VIPE and Visa’s broader innovation efforts:
to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.
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 grow across 15 markets, Spain and Portugal remain important anchors within the Iberian region. Both markets have steadily strengthened their role by connecting fintechs with banks, corporates, and Visa partners, creating opportunities for pilots, collaborations, and early commercial outcomes.
In 2025, the Spain & Portugal Edition also marked several important milestones for the region:
The first PoCs and partnerships with a major Financial Institution and the first-ever partnership with a government agency.
Multiple funding rounds by VIPE alumni — Shakers, Reveni, and GoParity — signalling strong investor confidence in Iberian founders.
Tailored support to the 2025 fintechs, helping them pivot frameworks, redefine go-to-market strategies, fine-tune international expansion roadmaps, ensure open-banking compliance, and explore card-issuance opportunities for UHNWIs.
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 Spain & 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.
Cian Speers, LoyalBe
The program offered immense value — from expertise to positioning. It helped us refine how we speak to financial institutions, how we present our value proposition, and how we see ourselves as a company. The introductions were transformative: we gained access to issuers, processors, and other players we had been trying to reach for months. The network you provided was invaluable. Even product-wise, the guidance we received on data reconciliation and prioritizing our roadmap was incredibly helpful. A big thank you to the entire Visa Innovation Program team.
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.
Miguel Linera, Silk
For us, the experience has been incredibly rewarding. We explored topics we didn’t have the capacity to tackle before joining the program and discovered new opportunities for collaboration. We truly hope this partnership continues and expands with Visa — after all, everyone has a Visa card in their pocket, and we want to reach those people.
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.
A card-linked rewards platform enabling retailers to run targeted cashback campaigns and boost customer retention.
Infrastructure for frictionless real-estate payments, improving transparency and trust between tenants and landlords.