Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 14 October 2018: Visa (NYSE:V), the world’s leader in digital payments, will showcase its Visa Developer platform and fintech partners from regional programs including winners of its ‘Everywhere Initiative’ and participants of DIFC’s Finetch Hive accelerator program, at the GITEX Future Stars. GITEX Future Stars is the largest startup event in the Middle East, Africa & South-East Asia, where startups, potential investors, corporate and government buyers come together to meet and connect.
Visa Developer is an open platform that gives application developers access to Visa’s APIs, tools, and payments experts that can help enable them to build easier, faster and more secure ways to power commerce. Visa’s Everywhere Initiative is a global program designed by Visa to encourage the development of the next big thing in payments. It was rolled-out in MENA, Russia and CISSEE region and Sub Saharan Africa region for the first time in 2017.
The Visa booth at GITEX Future Stars will host Mo Aideed, COO at Qpal, the MENA winner of the Visa Everywhere Initiative, providing the UAE-based fintech startup a unique opportunity to showcase its POS and mobile wallet solutions developed to speed up payments for food and beverages at events. Qpal, which won both the “Acceptance Challenge” as well as the overall prize for its idea, took home US$50,000 last year, as well earned itself the opportunity to work with the team at Visa’s Innovation Center in Dubai to develop this concept further. In addition to Qpal, Visa will host Visa Everywhere Initiative fintech startup winners from Russia and Sub-Saharan Africa including Gleb Kharitonov of Briskly, Nikolaev Danila of Bartello, and Eric Thimba of Mookh who will display their innovative solutions throughout the week.
Visa will also invite seven other fintech start-ups including Game Change Solutions, Verismart, Turnkey, Paysky, Amani, Bank Buddy, ebooc, and Spare to present their solutions at the GITEX Future Stars, as part of its ongoing mentoring program in association with Accenture. Furthermore, on day 4 of GITEX Future Stars (October 17), Visa will be running a mentorship clinic on Design Thinking and Visa Developer.
Shahebaz Khan, Visa’s Group Country Manager for the UAE and Innovation Lead for MENA, said: “We are really excited about our participation at GITEX Future Stars this year. Not only is this an ideal platform for us to exhibit our unique products but also mentor fintech startups and showcase their solutions to a wider audience attending the event. We look forward to meeting and interacting with various startups, innovators and investors at the event.”
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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 connected commerce on any device, and a driving force behind the dream of a cashless future 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 www.visamiddleast.com, visanewsmena.tumblr.com or follow us on Twitter @Visamiddleeast
About Visa’s Everywhere Initiative
Visa's Everywhere Initiative is an open innovation program designed to lead next generation payment innovation with the startup community. Launched in the U.S. in 2015, the program quickly expanded into a global program with nearly 1,500 participating start-ups, which have collectively raised over $2 billion in funding, with more than 90 finalists and 19 winners selected. In 2017, the program is underway in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.