Visa has announced the opening of applications for its 2024 edition of the Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI). The initiative is a global open innovation program and competition targeting fintech startups from across the globe.
The competition will see the fintech startups pitch their solutions that seek to solve tomorrow’s payment and commerce challenges.
In addition to equity-free funding, VEI winners gain access and exposure to Visa’s vast networks of partners in the banking, merchant, venture capital, and government sectors. The winners also benefit from receiving recognition from one of the world’s most trusted and valuable brands.
The program first launched in the US in 2015 and quickly expanded into a global program. To date, nearly 15,000 startups have participated, and have collectively raised over $48 billion in funding.
VEI 2023 saw Nigeria’s Drugstock take home the VEI global grand prize of $50,000, as well as the Audience Favorite prize of $10,000. Kenyan startup AiFluence won the Audience Favorite award at the CEMEA regional finals, taking home a prize of $10,000. This was in addition to the $20,000 they received for winning the Kenya in-country edition.
Eva Ngigi-Sarwari, Country Manager, Visa Kenya, said “The Visa Everywhere Initiative is a powerful platform that empowers and uplifts fintechs and entrepreneurs to showcase the most ground-breaking, impactful solutions solving tomorrow’s challenges in the world of payments and commerce. Fintechs have the potential to offer broad social benefits to the markets they operate in – particularly when it comes to providing financial services to those who have traditionally been underserved. At Visa, we believe access to the digital economy drives equitable, inclusive growth, and VEI is an important means of supporting the growth journey of fintechs – helping them take small but significant steps towards making an impact.”
Applications for Visa Everywhere Initiative 2024 will close on 6th May with successful applicants progressing to a virtual Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA) competition on July 17.
The startup that wins at the CEMEA final will participate in the global finale – competing against winners from Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and North America – at the TechCrunch Disrupt event in San Francisco on October 29th, 2024.