Dubai – Mubasher: Three UAE-based startups have reached the finals of the innovation programme Visa’s ‘Everywhere Initiative’.
Qpal, Bebuzzd, and Sippy and 10 other companies were chosen from a total of 190 entries and are set to compete with Egyptian, Lebanese, Jordanian, and Pakistani innovators to get the opportunity to receive over $50,000 in funding, according to Visa Incorporation’s statement on Wednesday.
Through its ‘Everywhere Initiative’, Visa aims to encourage the “development of the next big thing in payments”.
The challenges are based on real life business challenges such as enabling e-payment acceptance among smaller merchants and providing secure e-commerce solutions, building customer loyalty, and facilitating the transit experience at airports others, the statement showed.
Qpal, a mobile payment solution, is competing in the Acceptance Challenge category, while both Bebuzzd and Sippy are in the Loyalty Challenge category.
Visa stated that “One winner per brief will be selected with each receiving funding of $25,000”, which will be invited to a working meeting, adding that one winner will be selected to receive an additional $25,000.
“We are delighted with the response to our ‘Everywhere Initiative’ and the quality of submissions we received is an indication of the region’s rich talent pool and innovative spirit,” Karl Tlais, senior director at Visa, said.
“I would like to congratulate Qpal, Bebuzzd and Sippy on making it to the finals, and wish them and the other finalists luck as they enter the final stretch,” he added.
Visa Everywhere Initiative will end on 11 October in Dubai during the GITEX Technology Week conference.
To date, around 1,500 fintech startups from North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia have participated in Visa’s initiative.
