• Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI) 2020

    Startups and fintechs accepted here. $150K in prizes and the recognition from one of the world’s most valuable brands.

    Submissions are now closed.

The competition

Submissions are now closed.

The Visa Everywhere Initiative is a global, open innovation program that tasks start-ups and fintechs to solve payment and commerce challenges of tomorrow, further enhance their own product propositions and provide visionary solutions for Visa’s vast network of partners.

The program first launched in the U.S. in 2015 and quickly expanded into a global program with more than 6000+ participating startups. To date, startups have collectively raised over $2.5 billion in funding, and the program has been activated on six continents—touching more than 100 countries.

As the COVID-19 continues to take a human and economic toll across the world, there is a need to find immediate solutions to help rebuild small businesses. As a result, we have created a new challenge question, with additional funds to help support these small businesses. If your company can provide value to small businesses, the sixth challenge is for you. 

It's rewarding to join the VEI Challenge

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Validation

Your organization receives recognition from one of the world’s most valuable brands.

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Exposure

You’ll make valuable connections in the issuer, acquirer and merchant ecosystem.

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Monetary prize

Win and your company will receive prize money you can invest in your solution.

Joining the challenge

We are inviting fintechs and startups like you, to respond to at least one of our six business challenges to deliver solutions that drive the Visa or Visa’s partners forward or use Visa’s offerings in dynamic ways. On this occasion, we are inviting fintechs from all over the world to participate and submit their solutions. 

Submissions are now closed.

Challenge 2020

Visa is looking for the best and brightest companies to provide an innovation solution that helps Visa, and/or Visa clients provide breakthrough digital payments and/or commerce solutions. Read through the challenge questions to decide which ones are a good for your company.

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Challenge question 1

How can fintechs drive visibility across supply chain participants by enabling real-time commercial payments at sequential points within the supply chain and contingent upon variables such as verification of production, delivery and contract compliance?

  • Blockchain & Cryptocurrency
  • Crowdfunding
  • Fin Services & Infrastructure

  • Investment Management
  • Personal Finance
  • Money Transfer & Remittance

  • Wealth Management

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Challenge question 2

How can fintechs use digital payments and banking solutions to help consumers better manage cash flow needs without a requirement of traditional credit underwriting?

  • Data & Analytics
  • ID, Authentication & Security
  • Insuratech

  • Loyalty
  • Merchant Services & Tools
  • Process & Pay Infrastructure

  • Retail Technology

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Challenge question 3

Using Visa’s disbursement transactions and platform, how can a startup develop a solution that helps issuing banks provide a simple-to-implement, consumer-friendly, API-based money transfer and P2P solution?

  • Direct Biz/Consumer Lending
  • Market Place Landing
  • Money Transfer and Remittance

  • Online Banking
  • Payment, Wallets & Transfers

A cashier helps a customer use their Visa card to check out at a contactless terminal.

Challenge question 4

How can your startup leverage any Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile phone with no additional hardware to onboard and enable smaller merchants to accept contactless card present payments in-store and reduce cash use?

For this challenge, Sponsor is looking primarily for solutions that can help small business owners who only take cash, checks or ACH today and needs to move to digital commerce. It could also be a queue busting to ring up a sales in a formal retail.

Person using their phone to make a contactless payment at an outdoor café.

Challenge question 5

How would you leverage your technology in combination with some of the exponential technologies to enable new and disruptive forms of commerce, or support other parts of banking?

  • A number of exponential technologies like AI/Machine Learning, augmented and virtual reality, nanotech, robotics, networks and computing systems and biotech to name a few, are rapidly evolving and have the potential to disrupt major industries, impacting all aspects of our lives including payments. How would you leverage them?
  • Please explain the customer or user needs your technology address, and the impact to the businesses that would purchase or use your technology.

A woman wearing glasses using an iPad to review details about her business.

Challenge question 6

How would your startup help support small businesses to recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerate deployment, since timely access is so critical right now? 

  • Accept contactless & mobile payments
  • Grow on e-commerce
  • Move money faster
  • Solve for liquidity
  • Build community through virtual conferences
  • Chargebacks & disputes
  • Auth rates & operations
  • POS branding and preference
  • Disbursements

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