Visa's Everywhere Initiative is aimed at finding innovative ideas, new marketing techniques and build bonds in the startup community.
The first challenge was presented at SXSW 2015 and resulted in Reelio, a platform that connected YouTube content creators to brands looking for great content. It sparked many partnerships and created the channel that artists and other creatives, as well as companies, needed to make their voice heard, or to improve a campaign.
This year, Visa is holding another Everywhere Initiative, but there are three challenges:
- Build a payment solution that creates a more powerful purchase experience
- Engage fans at Visa-sponsored events through social media channels
- Encourage Visa users to load their Visa cards onto every digital platform they use to eliminate the need for physical plastic cards
"With payment and marketing innovation happening at break-neck speed, Visa is once again asking the start-up community for their best ideas to help move the industry forward," Shiv Singh, Visa's senior vice president of digital and marketing transformation, said in a press release. "With Visa's rich set of APIs and SDKs, we are especially excited to see how our open platform can help fuel additional payment innovation with this year's challenges."
There will be one winner for each of the three challenges. Each winner will receive $50,000, intended to be used to make their solution a reality.
Challenge preview in March
The first challenge was previewed in March in Austin, Texas, and brought in five different startups. Singh stated that all five ideas were "outstanding," and is looking forward to see what other ideas come from The Everywhere Initiative.
Of the five, one was awarded a $25,000 prize. The start-up called Ledge offered a solution for peer-to-peer lending on mobile platforms. The $25,000 prize will go toward building a prototype that combines the platform with Visa Direct.
Winners will also have their solutions be shown in a wide variety of places including Dubai and Singapore, as well as in the U.S. in San Francisco and Miami. A panel of Visa business and technology leaders will judge entries and choose the winners.
"With Visa China running its own Everywhere Initiative competition this year, and adding our student initiative, we look forward to growing The Everywhere Initiative to start-ups, students and developers all across the world who want to help us build the future of payments and engage consumers in new and dynamic ways," Singh said.
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