Mastercard Start Path opens door for fintech startups to scale innovation

Mastercard Start Path, a startup engagement programme, has opened the door for 11 fintech startups to receive dedicated support, access to consumers and product teams, and co-innovation opportunities. Finmod, Flourish Savings, GenEQTY, Karri, KeyChain Pay, Kwara, Layer, Osper, Swap, upSWOT, and Wellthi were chosen to participate and are modernising payments through gamification, behavioural science, social banking platforms, and more. As part of Mastercard’s In Solidarity commitments, GenEQTY, Finmod, and Wellthi have joined the new Start Path track dedicated to assisting early-stage firms founded by founders from backgrounds underrepresented in the financial field.

 “We’ve seen tremendous growth across the fintech landscape, and more people are benefitting from the digital economy than ever before, whether they’re gaining access to credit for their small business through open banking or securely making payments to their child’s school from the comfort of their smartphone,” said Amy Neale, senior vice president, Fintech & Enablers.

Also added, “Through Start Path, Mastercard creates a springboard for fintech companies that are driving a more inclusive digital economy and helps them accelerate the way they change the world.”

Mastercard has a history of partnering with startups. Since its inception in 2014, Start Path has identified co-innovation opportunities and offered mentorship to more than 260 entrepreneurs, who have raised more than $5 billion in funding. To quickly scale their businesses, the following startups have joined this growing network:

• Finmod assists small and medium-sized organisations in forecasting financials ten times faster and making real-time financial decisions.
• Flourish FI is a financial institution’s engagement and financial wellness platform that uses gamification and behavioural science to encourage people to develop good money habits and attain financial security.
•  GenEQTY through one central data-driven business hub offers a smarter digital banking solution to help small businesses and solopreneurs enhance financial performance, maintain business health, and obtain faster access to capital.
•  Karri is a mobile payment software that allows parents to manage their children’s money while also allowing them to make quick and easy contributions to schools and community organisations..
• KeyChain Pay is a smart platform that uses AI and credit card tokenization to collect and pay rent for landlords and tenants.
• Kwara With a credit union operating system and a neobank experience for their members, is transforming credit unions into modern, digital banks..
• Layer’s The digital banking platform combines traditional and neobank capabilities into a single platform, lowering costs, improving the client experience, and enabling banks and non-financial organisations to become genuinely digital. 
• Osper empowers young people to earn, spend, and save; its new B2B platform, Prosper, enables any firm to start their own youth card scheme in weeks for a fraction of the expense of doing so in-house.
• Swap is a platform headquartered in Brazil that enables businesses to integrate financial services in order to grow their reach, provide unrivalled product experiences, and improve their economics.
• upSWOT With 150+ API-enabled apps delivers a white-labeled business health dashboard that enables online and mobile banking platforms.
• Wellthi by turning every card into a community, creates social banking solutions that help customers utilise the power of AI, analytics, and online communities to attract and keep new consumer groups.

Mastercard embraces chances to help and collaborate with digital players to unlock potential and build the next generation of commerce as the fintech ecosystem continues to evolve and diversify.