Most people think of Visa as a credit card company. However, we’ve never issued a single card. We’re a tech company. Our technology has enabled digital payments globally and is now accelerating new ways to pay that go far beyond credit cards. Visa’s ability to connect billions of accounts and devices provides endless opportunities in the increasingly changing and disruptive payments industry.
However, we recognize that we do not have all the answers. With more than 20 million software developers globally, the next big thing could come from anyone, anywhere. This is why we want to identify emerging digital partners and work to address business challenges in the commerce industry together.
With our global tech platform and know-how, we believe our role is to be a catalyst for innovation. We enable players in the payments space by giving them access to Visa’s vast global network and capabilities. It provides the opportunity to take great ideas to the market quickly and make them secure and interoperable anywhere in the world.
One of the most important changes that Visa has made has been in the way we work with partners and clients. We have transformed our proprietary technology network into an open platform - Visa Developer Platform - allowing anyone to transform great ideas via APIs into new digital commerce experiences. We’ve established a global network of innovation centers and studios to provide creative environments for partners to rapidly co-create new consumer experiences alongside Visa experts. And, we’re investing and building new partnerships with the next generation of PayTech companies.
An important part of our approach is to stay close to the most vibrant and dynamic FinTech regions. The Nordic and Baltics are in focus for Visa’s innovation partnerships as one of world’s most digitally mature and innovative FinTech clusters and is in the spotlight for Visa’s recently announced $100 million investment program to support European FinTech solutions. The region is also home to several of Visa’s strategic partners such as Klarna, iZettle, and EVRY.
As part of Visa’s long-term commitment to the FinTech sector in the Nordic and Baltic regions, we will gradually grow our local team, presence, network and strategic partnerships. And later this year we will introduce a new FinTech fast-track program for start-ups.
To kick-start this commitment, we launched Visa Everywhere Initiative program for the Nordic and Baltic regions at the Sthlm Tech Fest on September 3, 2018. It is an innovation program that challenges start-ups to uncover the next big thing in payments, leveraging Visa’s world-class network. We hope it will showcase the region’s most exciting ideas and how Visa can help fine-tune and scale those ideas.
Our ambition is to open the doors for collaboration, bringing in innovative solutions to solve business challenges and drive the future of commerce.
