Six fintechs from Greece, out of a total of sixteen, are part of the 4^th Cycle of the Visa Innovation Program, Visa's collaboration platform for startups and fintech entrepreneurs operating in Southeastern Europe. The Visa Innovation Program connects early-stage fintechs with Visa's global partner network, including:

• e-money οrganizations
• banks
• Merchants
• governments and other important organisations

It aims to boost innovation in the financial and payments industry. The Programme works in partnership with Crowdpolicy, a technology and open innovation company (Greece), Eleven Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund (Bulgaria) and Hackquarters, a business accelerator (Turkey).

Different groups with scalable solutions for their participation in the Visa Innovation Program

More than 219 companies from 28 countries applied to work on this year's key issues, which are:

• promoting next-generation payment experiences
• the empowerment of small and medium-sized enterprises
• unlocking new payment flows
• building a smart and sustainable future

The selected teams have demonstrated in-depth knowledge of the fintech sector and scalable business models. These groups could define new application cases and customer behaviors in the financial industry.

Visa has partnered with the Elevate Greece program

This year, Visa partnered with Elevate Greece, the National Startup Registry in Greece. This is in order to further support the development of the Greek startup ecosystem and beyond. In this context, Visa invited startups registered in Elevate Greece startups to participate in the 4^th Cycle of the Visa Innovation Program, which has been operating successfully for the last 3 years in Greece in collaboration with Crowdpolicy. Two startups belonging to Elevate Greece, Come Together and EVLoader, were accepted.

Sevi Vassileva, Vice President, Regional General Manager of Visa Greece

«The Visa Innovation Programme for the 4th consecutive year gives the opportunity to the fintechs of the country expand outside Greece and offer solutions that shape the future payments and trade. This year, we are enthusiastically participating as an Official Partner in the Greek government's Elevate Greece initiative, aiming to to further support the development of the Greek startup sector ecosystem. As part of our partnership, Visa will offer the Visa Innovation Program Award worth 50,000 euros. Through this it will provide services in kind to the two selected fintechs of Elevate Greece. This will help them acquire the necessary skills and tools to grow into successful businesses."

George Karamanolis, CIO/CTO & Co-founder of Crowdpolicy

"We are very proud of our participation in this innovative program that aims to highlight value, creativity and great dynamic synergies at interregional level. It is of the utmost importance that we address common challenges through the Programme in order to improve our daily lives. I would like to wish everyone the best of luck. Rest assured that we will support every fintech startup, as well as our partners, to leverage the collective fintech experience generated by the Visa Innovation Program."

Knowledge sharing and new business opportunities

The selected start-ups will participate in a complex training programme. They will carry out specialized design sprints and workshops to boost their development. The teams will work with an extensive network of Visa mentors and advisors, as well as Visa's global network, in the field of:

• payments
• of open banking
• of crypto and blockchain
• safety and sustainability

Aim is to gain knowledge about the industry and improve their value propositions. They will also be presented to a Proof of Concept network, such as banks, merchants and other organizations. This way they will test and validate their proposals and reach the market faster.

Fintechs participating in the 4th Cycle of the Visa Innovation Program from Greece

AFI //https://www.afi.org.gr/en/home// The Action Finance Initiative (AFI) is a non-profit microfinance company that provides access to finance, through microcredit, to those who have a business or idea but cannot secure access to the necessary funds. At the same time, it supports these businesses by providing free training and support.

Come Together //https://cometogether.network/ // ComeTogether introduces a new form of blockchain-based digital ticketing to unlock new revenue from sub-purchases and NFTs while improving the participant experience. ComeTogether is one of the registered startups of Elevate Greece that was selected to participate in the Visa Innovation Program.

Coriunder //https://www.coriunder.com/index.html / A complete management platform that combines Acquiring and Issuing services /Banking and financial management, to help companies develop their products (whitelabeled and branded).

EV Loader //https://evloader.com/ // EV Loader develops the first network of chargers open to all in Greece and Southeastern Europe. It provides charging station management software to businesses such as hotels and shops that already have a charging station on their premises and communicates their location through the EV Loader map application and other applications. EV Loader is one of the registered startups of Elevate Greece that was also selected to participate in the Visa Innovation Program.

Infin8 // https://infin8.eu/ // An application that leverages open banking to gather account information, initiate payments, financial management and generate leads for merchants and SMEs.

Valuelenz // https://valuelenz.com/ // "Hybrid trade and phygital markets". Valuelenz is a Hybrid Commerce Startup that allows physical stores to gain a range of digital capabilities that create exciting and secure ways for customers to make their purchases.