Visa Innovation Program Europe announces the selected fintech for its 2023 edition

• Visa Innovation Program Europe has selected eight fintech to participate in its 2023 edition in Greece, Cyprus and Malta, from a total of 44 applications received.

• The selected fintech will collaborate with Visa, Eleven Ventures and Endeavor Greece along with their network of clients and business partners, with the aim of enhancing and driving innovation within the financial and payments industry.

• Fintech will have the opportunity to receive training and mentorship from subject matter experts to accelerate their solutions and expand internationally with the support of Visa's global network, which spans 200 countries.

Athens, June 2023: Visa Innovation Program Europe has announced the 8 fintechs selected for its 2023 edition in Greece, Cyprus and Malta.  The platform for collaboration and acceleration of innovative fintechs in Europe will once again bring together a diverse ecosystem of entrepreneurs with Visa and its global network of partners, with the aim of driving innovation in the financial and payments industries. The program, which runs in Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, Spain, Italy and Portugal, has received applications from more than 1,000 fintech companies from over 50 countries since its launch in 2018 and almost 300 only in this edition.

In the case of Greece, Cyprus and Malta, the program will run together with Eleven Ventures and Endeavor Greece. From a total of 44 applications received this year, the fintechs Billys, Cloudeo, MyTeam, Moveo, Futurae Technologies, Loyale, Envirly and PayNetX have been selected. All of them have demonstrated the knowledge, ambition for growth and business models with the potential to be internationally scalable. Therefore, during the program, these companies will have the chance to contribute to drive disruptive payment experiences, empower merchants and SMEs, unlock new payment flows and build a smart and sustainable future with integrated finance.

Sevdalina Vassileva, General Manager of Visa in Greece, Israel, Malta and Cyprus, highlights that: "At Visa, we constantly innovate to make new and future payment methods better and more accessible to all. We support collaborative innovation and understand the value that innovators bring to the world of payments, to consumers and businesses. We welcome the talented participants in the new edition of the Visa Innovation Program Europe and we are eager to witness their innovative and game-changing ideas. We run the innovation race together. With fintech's disruptive ideas and Visa’s capabilities and network, we are committed to create the digital payments solutions of tomorrow and support the growth of the fintech ecosystem in Greece”.

Daniel Tomov, Managing partner at Eleven, said, ““The new cohort of companies excites us a lot, as we see an increasing number of opportunities for collaboration between the newcomers, the Program alumni and the growing network of Visa Innovation Program partners in Europe. The fantastic selection this year has the potential to digitally transform and positively influence the development of entire sectors such as sports and facility management, for example, via a fintech infrastructure deeply embedded into the user journey. We are also delighted to see truly innovative models, redefining the meaning of payment acceptance, user onboarding and loyalty. Every year the bar is rising higher and we are very keen on accelerating these companies' scaling journey through the Visa Innovation Program's powerful infrastructure.”

Panagiotis Karampinis, Managing Director for Endeavor Greece, said, “Endeavor Greece is proud to join forces with Visa and Eleven Ventures as a Program Partner for the 5th Visa Innovation Program Europe. For the last 5 years, the Visa Innovation Program has been exceptional in searching for the most promising fintech startups in our region, helping them scale up, and collaborating closely with key players from the Visa ecosystem. Endeavor Greece joins this mission and will focus its efforts primarily on 3 key markets for the Program, Greece, Malta, and Cyprus. In these markets, we will not just identify the best fintech startups but work closely with them, utilize the Endeavor network and the Visa Innovation Program capabilities to support them scaling up and multiply their impact towards transforming the local economies, as we have seen fintech startups do in so many markets. We are excited about what comes next.”

Bea Larregle, Regional Managing Director of Visa in Southern Europe, adds: “Collaborative innovation is crucial to building more inclusive economies and boosting economic growth. After the successful experiences of the program in the different markets of Southern Europe region, we are delighted to welcome the Fintech selected in this edition in Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Turkey. We will continue discovering and promoting more Fintech talents, which we believe can be key assets for the future of payments and commerce in Europe”.

Accelerating fintech ecosystem innovation through collaboration, co-creation and scalable solutions

Visa has a strong track record of collaborating with fintechs, giving them access to its global network of partners and accelerating their growth. The Visa Innovation Program Europe provides the fintech ecosystem with access to Visa's infrastructure, including one-to-one mentoring sessions, advice, technology tools and access to clients to validate their value proposition.

Fintechs selected for Visa Innovation Program Europe 2023 in Greece, Cyprus and Malta

The Selected Companies to join the Visa Innovation Program Europe 2023 Edition in Greece, Cyprus and Malta:

• Billys (Greece): Billys provides a vertical SaaS platform for building management, ultimately solving the problem of lack of transparency, reporting, and coordination in cash payments for service charges in apartment buildings.

• Cloudeo (Germany, Greece): In efforts to solve the problem surrounding the complexity and fragmentation of the geospatial market, Cloudeo, is simplifying geo-business for customers & partners by providing a wide range of geo-data products, GIS software, and applications from various providers on a single platform.

• MyTeam (Greece): MyTeam uses its online platform to solve problems relating to optimizing the daily operations and financial management of sports clubs and organizations and improving communication with their members.

• Moveo (Greece): Moveo is a Complete Enterprise Platform SaaS platform that uses unstructured data from past conversations and knowledge centers to create enterprise-grade conversational AI agents that allow enterprises to easily automate any business process.

• Futurae Technologies (Switzerland, Greece): Futurae is an authentication suite platform that makes the authentication process easier and safer for users and companies. Ultimately, it helps developers integrate secure and user-friendly authentication methods into their applications.

• Loyale (Malta): Loyale is a marketing platform that is solving the problem of customer retention and increasing repeat purchase rates that will ultimately help businesses automate their marketing, boost sales, and increase their repeat purchase rate.

• Envirly (Poland): Envirly is a carbon management software that is designed to help companies track, measure and reduce their carbon footprint, helping them meet the needs of the market companies that are embracing sustainable strategies.

• PayNetX (United Kingdom): PayNetX has developed a global hybrid platform designed to revolutionize the way traditional financing and decentralized financing work together, solving the problem of integration between the two.

About Visa Innovation Program Europe

The Visa Innovation Program Europe is a pilot-focused, action-free collaboration platform that enables fintechs to accelerate their response to the payment and commerce challenges of the future, further enhance their own product propositions and provide visionary solutions for Visa's extensive network of clients and partners. Implemented by Visa in collaboration with Eleven Ventures and Endeavor Greece, the Visa Innovation Program was designed to support and accelerate innovation in the digital payments ecosystem.

About Visa Inc.

Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com. 

About Eleven Ventures

Eleven Ventures is one of the leading early-stage VCs 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. Eleven supports tech companies in four priority verticals - Fintech, Healthcare, Future of Work and Future of Food. Some of the startups which Eleven has backed include Payhawk, Gtmhub, Dronamics, SMSBump, Kanbanize and Nitropack. Find out more at 11.vc.

About Endeavor Greece

Endeavor, the leading global community of, by, and for High-Impact Entrepreneurs with a presence in 41 markets, has been active in Greece for the last 10 years. Its goal is to support the development of a dynamic and innovative Greek ecosystem that is full of opportunities. For Endeavor, overall prosperity thrives where there is strong support for promising entrepreneurs, thus, selecting and supporting innovative, fast-growing businesses with the help of its expanded network of mentors and investors made up of hundreds of prominent personalities globally. Today, Endeavor Greece actively supports 43 successful Greek entrepreneurs who are members of the global network and over 120 companies through various programs. To learn more about the organization and its initiatives, visit endeavor.org.gr.