How Visa’s commitment to start-up and fintech drives inclusion and access for all – TechCrunch

By Alex McCrea, Vice President and Head of Strategic Partnerships and Ventures for Visa Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa

Visa Everywhere Initiative is expanding the reach of Fintech in a transformed economic landscape

Fintechs and startups have emerged from the pandemic as leaders in economic recovery, offering convenient platforms for buying and selling goods and services, and more importantly, sending and receiving money. Their success in ensuring real-time, simplified and secure movement of money across Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) strengthens growth and boosts the digital payment ecosystem.

Fintechs can only meet consumer demands by gaining and expanding access to a comprehensive network of companies, customers, service providers and more. So what can be done to help future startups, as well as more established Fintech companies, so that we can all enjoy the benefits?

Programs such as View Fintech Fast-track and Visa developer represents effective ways to strengthen the growth path, increase exposure and continue to take advantage of ever-increasing customer demand. With more than $ 500,000 in total premium funding, the annual Show everywhere initiative the program opens up opportunities and provides success for CEMEA’s most promising Fintechs and startups.

Fintech has not only helped digitize more customers, but also respond to growing demand for new payment mechanisms, such as Buy Now, Pay Later, Phone Calls and Real-Time Payments. With Show directly For example, Visa’s platform for real-time money movements, Fintechs enables its customers to send and receive money to billions of endpoints worldwide, in any of 160 transaction currencies.

Wide availability, ease of use and lower costs have driven the growth of these payment innovations worldwide in recent years.

Ever since Bitcoin was released in 2009, applications for cryptocurrency, and blockchain in general, have expanded significantly. Then have the opportunities for crypto to change the digital payment landscape.

Consumer awareness of cryptocurrencies continues to rise, reaching 84% in the UAE. In South Africa, a Visa survey entitled “The Crypto Phenomenon: Consumer Attitudes and Usage” reveals that 44% of South Africans are either active or passive owners of crypto..

2021 was a watershed for cryptocurrencies as the market value of the sector grew by 187.5%. In 2022, sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) reached $ 37 billion worldwide, almost above the total amount throughout 2021.

Former professional athlete and artist Micah Johnson, who made his first NFT sale in 2020 using View Creator’s Programhas mentioned that “NFTs opened an opportunity for me to build a community of people who are interested in supporting my work …[and] with guidance from the early crypto community, I have been able to build a small business around my crypto-native character, Aku, which can grow into a global media company rooted in driving value back to the same community that evangelized my work. ”

Increasingly, cryptocurrency-affiliated startups are seeking to get an extra push by engaging with trusted financiers. Visa Everywhere initiative and Visa Fintech Partner Connect are two programs designed to help these startups connect with traditional banks and institutions. Many of these companies are eager to explore Fintech opportunities, but lack experience or knowledge on the ground. They decide to look for curated partners who can offer new technologies to complement their digital innovation work.

With 1.8 billion people worldwide without access to digital financial servicesincluding 700 million individuals and 60 million sellers across the CEMEA region, Visa Everywhere Initiative is looking for Fintech who can offer innovative payment and trading solutions to meet the challenge of access and financial inclusion. These include, but are not limited to: Activation of digital services, digital issuance, value added for sellers and / or consumers in finance and small / medium-sized business solutions. This year, the initiative has expanded to showcase startups that use cryptocurrency and Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time platform for money movements, in innovative ways.

Fintech access to finance and to the payment ecosystem is also critical. Since its launch in 2015, the program has supported startups from over 100 countries to raise more than $ 16 billion in funding and access Visa’s broad network of customers, addressing one of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face in their start-up years.

This year, the CEMEA region had special editions in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and the winners will be announced during the final, which will be broadcast on 17 June.th, here at TechCrunch. Will your idea be among them?

For more information about the ROAD program, visit www.visa.com/everywhereinitiative