SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fintechs are transforming the global payments ecosystem at a rapid pace, changing the way people invest, manage money, receive loans, and send real-time payments to friends and family. Given the importance of the fintech community, and Visa’s longtime commitment to digital payment innovation, Visa (NYSE: V) today announced the expansion of its popular Fast Track program to the United States in conjunction with a large and growing network of partners.
Fast Track aims to speed up the process of integrating with Visa, to allow nimble start-ups the ability to more easily leverage the reach, capabilities, and security VisaNet, the company’s global payment network, offers, thereby helping fintechs scale more quickly.
Fast Track is possible in the U.S. thanks to collaborations with leading companies who provide services across the payments spectrum – from card issuance, to push payments integration, to Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance, as well as Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) support. Visa is launching Fast Track in the U.S. in collaboration with Alloy, BBVA Open Platform, Cross River Bank, Galileo, Green Dot, Marqeta, Netspend (TSYS’ Consumer Segment), Stripe, TabaPay, TSYS, Q2, and Very Good Security. Visa DPS will also support certain partners’ participation in the program.
“In markets across the world, Visa has successfully rolled out the Fast Track program, linking arms with fintechs to provide a clear path towards getting to market, leveraging Visa’s scale, security, reach and strong network of partners,” said Terry Angelos, SVP and Global Head of Fintech, Visa. “By launching Fast Track in the U.S., we are continuing our support for fintechs across the globe, with the goal of accelerating the growth of digital payments and creating better ways to move money everywhere.”
Last year, venture capital-backed fintechs raised a record $39.6 billion from investors globally, up 120% from the previous year.1. As part of the launch of Fast Track in the U.S., Visa is working with leading venture capital firms to automatically qualify their portfolio companies into the U.S. Fast Track program. Some of these early partners include: Andreessen Horowitz, Nyca Partners, Ribbit Capital and Trinity Ventures.
Visa’s Fast Track program, already available in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia Pacific, has successfully helped Visa propel the growth of the fintech industry around the world. Interested participants in the U.S. can now apply by visiting: www.visa.com/fintech.
Visa’s Ongoing Commitment to Fintechs around the World
Visa’s work with fintechs bolsters many of the companies’ strategic business priorities including: Visa Direct, Visa Business Solutions (VBS), and Visa’s commitment to bringing digital payment options to the unbanked via social impact programs.
Fast Track is one part of a broader Visa strategy to support fintechs’ growth and development globally. In addition to Fast Track, Visa is consistently engaging with the fintech community through a variety of strategic initiatives and programs. These include:
Partnership:
- Across the globe, Visa collaborates with innovative fintechs to help them reach their growth and payment ambitions, with the backing of Visa’s speed, security and scale.
- In the past year alone, Visa has announced partnerships with multiple leading fintech companies, including: Currencycloud, Flutterwave, ininal, N26, PayActiv, Rappi, Razer and Remitly.
Investment:
- Visa actively invests in companies leveraging cutting-edge technology to create new payment flows for the ecosystem.
- This year alone, Visa has invested in multiple leading fintechs worldwide, including: Anchorage, Bankable, Branch, Finix, Minna Technologies and PayMate.
Ongoing Engagement:
- Inclusive Fintech 50: Co-designed and funded by Visa, the Inclusive Fintech 50 is a competition to make early-stage fintechs more visible to investors and others who can help them scale and reach more underserved people.
- Visa Everywhere Initiative: A global competition aimed at cultivating new relationships with the global startup community.
Fintechs today are looking to change the way money works, solving for friction that senders and receivers of payments experience day-to-day. As one of the world’s original fintechs, Visa is committed to partnering with and supporting the next generation of payment innovators. Today, Visa is focused on helping fintechs bring to market new digital payment experiences across a broad spectrum of verticals including: neo-banking and acceptance, new sectors across push payments like earned wage access, money management and investments, as well as lending.
Comments from Venture Capital Firms:
“Speed is essential for fintech startups, particularly in the early stages. Easier access to the kind of infrastructure provided by Visa’s Fast Track program will help unlock massive amounts of innovation in the payments ecosystem,” said Schwark Satyavolu, General Partner, Trinity Ventures. “We are looking forward to introducing our companies to Visa as they continue pushing forward digital innovation in the payments landscape.”
“We see many entrepreneurs with big ideas that can add real value and solve problems in the global payments system; the problem can be the difficulty of distribution and connectivity to the essential infrastructure,” said Hans Morris, Managing Partner, Nyca Ventures. “Fast Track solves for this, enabling some of our best companies to start working with Visa right away.”
Comments from U.S. Fast Track Launch Partners:
“Alloy is proud to share Visa’s mission of supporting the next generation of innovative fintech products and services as they get to market faster with the best identity, compliance and payments solutions in the market,” said Laura Spiekerman, Co-Founder and CRO, Alloy.
“BBVA Open Platform is proud to be an enabler of fintech companies across the U.S., using our intuitive API platform to empower leading innovative companies to offer banking and payments services under their own brand,” said Abhishek Gupta, Head of BBVA Open Platform. “We’re thrilled to work with Visa to expand our mission of helping companies drive exponential growth and create more opportunities for consumers on top of better banking and payments services.”
“Cross River is excited to partner with Visa to power the next generation of commerce,” said Gilles Gade, Founder, CEO and Chairman, Cross River. “The combination of Cross River and Visa makes for a compelling proposition to provide innovative banking and payment solutions that transform financial services.”
“The simplicity of Galileo’s APIs gives global fintech leaders the ability to use our powerful technology platform to innovate in the banking and payments ecosystem,” said Clay Wilkes, CEO, Galileo. “Now with Visa’s Fast Track program, we are making access to this capability faster. Gig economy companies, fintechs and any businesses with payment requirements can jump in to begin issuing payment credentials, with the confidence to grow and scale a profitable business.”
“We are thrilled to participate in Visa’s Fast Track program,” said Brett Narlinger, Chief Revenue Officer, Green Dot. “Visa has been a tremendous partner as we have scaled our Banking-as-a-Service offering, and we look forward to onboarding many new and innovative companies with our flexible API-driven technology platform, our large-scale program management operation and our highly capitalized integrated bank. We’ve found that Green Dot’s BaaS platform, with its proven scale and market-leading features, is a fast way for fintechs to launch new products, and we’re excited to make Green Dot BaaS available to even more companies through this partnership.”
“Marqeta was founded with a mission to bring modern card issuing technology to a new generation of fintech innovators badly in need of open API solutions to help them better design products to get market and reach scale faster,” said Jason Gardner, Founder and CEO of Marqeta. “Visa’s Fast Track Program is a DNA fit for us, and we applaud strongly a company of Visa’s scope and influence investing in up-and-coming entrepreneurs and technologies, especially at a time when the future of banking and payments is being constantly shaped and remade.”
“As a Fintech ourselves, we are always looking to give back and support companies with innovative solutions to help fintechs get to market fast and scale,” said Manoj Verma, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer, Tabapay. “Our partnership with Visa through the Fast Track program only helps us deliver on this more.”
“TSYS and Netspend, TSYS’ consumer segment, are pleased to partner with Visa to help establish potential relationships, and business opportunities, with new fintech companies that will push the limits of fintech innovation in the U.S.,” said Netspend President and TSYS Senior Executive Vice President, Kelley Knutson. “We have been influential leaders in the payments ecosystem, developing end-to-end innovative processing and payments solutions that bring convenience and control to people and businesses who value reliability, security and trust in their financial services partners. This makes partnering with organizations that also prioritize these same qualities a crucial part of the Fast Track program. We’re excited to work with Visa and help grow, and expand, our respective verticals and channels with emerging fintech companies.”
“The Fintech Fast Track program highlights both Visa and Very Good Security’s commitment to help emerging fintechs get to market both rapidly and securely,” said Mahmoud Abdelkader, CEO and Co-Founder, VGS. “VGS is excited to team up with Visa to provide the foundational compliance and security infrastructure for the next generation of fintechs.”
About Visa Inc.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa, visa.com/blog and @VisaNews.
1 CB Insights: “Fintech Trends Report,” 2019