About the competition

Visa Everywhere Initiative is an open innovation program that helps startups unlock new opportunities—and provides them with a global platform to unveil their cutting-edge solutions. Annually, the initiative holds a competition among startups at the regional level from which the finalists then compete at the global level to win prizes, raise funds and unlock global opportunities. In 2021, it is running the competition global competition and calls on the brightest startups to join.

Quick details

Organizer: Visa

Schedule as per the regions:

Latin America:

• Applications closing: April 2nd
• Finals event: on June 23rd (live-streamed on TechCrunch)

CEMEA:

• Ethiopia:
  • Closing date: April 9th
  • Finals event: May 10th

• Rest of CEMEA:
  • Applications closing: May 7th
  • Finals event: June 8th (live-streamed on TechCrunch)

North America Finals:

• Applications close: May 14th
• Finals event: June 22nd (live-streamed on TechCrunch)

Asia Pacific:

• Applications close: June 4th
• Finals event: July 6th

Europe:

• Applications close: June 18th
• Finals event: July 19th

Global Finals:

• Event: September 14th

Prizes

Four cash prizes will be conferred during the global finals event:

1. Overall Winner: $50,000 $US
2. Audience Favorite: $25,000 $US
3. 2nd Place: $15,000 $US
4. 3rd Place: $10,000 $US

The three categories (except No 2) winners are also eligible to win the Audience Favorite Prize.

Other benefits

Startups also gain in addition to cash awards:

• Validation
• Global exposure while being featured on reputable platforms

Eligibilities- Which startups can apply?

Visa is looking for startups with great products already in the market enjoying traction that provide innovative payment and commerce solutions to consumers and businesses. These include but are not limited to:

Enablers of digital services and digital issuers

• Blockchain and cryptocurrency
• Crowdfunding
• Banking as a service
• BIN sponsors
• Issuer/processors
• Program managers

Digital issuance

• Blockchain and cryptocurrency
• Alternative lending
• Personal financial management
• Money transfer and remittance
• Digital banking
• Digital wallets, P2P, and transfers
• Employee benefits
• Payables
• Corporate cards (aka expense management)

Value-add for merchants and/or consumers in regard to finance

• Data and analytics
• ID, authentication, and security
• Insurtech
• Loyalty
• Merchant services and tools
• Process and pay infrastructure
• Retail technology

Small/medium-sized business recovery

• Money movement (disbursements, intra-account, P2P, payments)
• Acceptance (e-commerce, mobile acceptance)
• Risk management (chargebacks, etc.)
• Brand management (community building, etc.)

How to participate in the competition?

The application is online. Participants can complete & submit their application online.

Apply Now

Visa will choose the top 5 finalists for the 5 regions listed above. Next, each region will select a winner that will advance to the global finals event. (The regional spots allocation vary as per each).

To read more details about the initiative and competition, click on Visa Everyone Initiative 2021 Competition.

For questions, contact visa@kitesrm.com.