Visa, Mastercard get tough on fintech accelerator programs
As traditional financial institutions pull back from earlier VC-type models, Visa, Mastercard and many banks are sharpening their fintech investment programs.
Global payments giants Visa and Mastercard have narrowed the focus of their fintech accelerator programs, shifting the focus from portfolio models to tackling clear and present market gaps with commercial outcomes. It's a shift banks are adopting too.
The record of traditional financial institutions developing fintechs via quasi-venture capital and incubator hubs has been mixed. In Australia, the major banks have wound back their most ambitious programs.
But fintech partnerships remain attractive. The era of traditional finance players seeing fintechs as the barbarians at the gate — and indeed fintechs seeing themselves as invaders — has well and truly passed.
Visa and Mastercard have both refined early generations of their investments in — and collaborations with — startups and scaleups and remain committed to accelerator and innovation hubs. Who they back and how they back them however is more niche-oriented.
