Mastercard Start Path

Democratizing financial technology with a suite of API-based solutions

FinTech Infrastructure

Based in Australia, Airwallex is a FinTech payment platform that enables enterprises to build cross-border payment and fund transfer systems, using application programming interfaces (APIs). Through the platform, enterprises can embed a range of services, including online payments, treasury, foreign currency transactions, managing foreign currency risks, and card issuing and management. Over the last few years, the company has been adding a range of products to its platform, with some notable additions in 2020 such as multi-currency debit cards with Visa, a bank feed integration, and a small and medium businesses (SMB) rewards program.Airwallex enables enterprises to transfer funds internationally in over 60 currencies, as of September 2024. The company holds electronic money institution (EMI) licenses in its core markets, including the UK, the <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/5151">US</a>, Australia, the European single market, and Hong Kong. It also secured a money services business (MSB) license from Bank Negara <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/5253">Malaysia in September 2021</a>, which it believes will complement its team in Singapore to expand Airwallex’s operations in Southeast Asia. Its Asia Pacific expansion was further bolstered by expanding into New Zealand in June 2022. The company also <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16896?industryIds=53">obtained a payment business license</a> in China in March 2023, through the acquisition of Guangzhou Shang Wu Tong Network Technology Co Ltd.As of September 2024, the company had a workforce of over 1,500 employees with operational presence in 11 countries including the US, UK, Australia, India and China. It also secured the <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/31773">Australian Financial Services Licence</a> (AFSL) from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) in July 2024 to offer retail investment products in Australia. In May 2023, the company<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18435"> launched operations in Israel</a>, with the intention of further expanding its presence across the EMEA in 2023.Airwallex reported a 73% YoY growth in annual payment processing volume to surpass USD 100 billion and recorded an annual revenue run rate of USD 500 million in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/15/fintech-firm-airwallex-nears-500m-arr-plans-to-be-ipo-ready-by-2026.html">August 2024</a>, supported by growth in volumes across all its offerings, including payments, foreign exchange, payouts, and issuing. The company also intends to go public by 2026.Key customers and partnershipsAirwallex served <a href="https://www.airwallex.com/newsroom/airwallex-processing-volume-surges-past-usd100-billion#:~:text=Proudly%20founded%20in%20Melbourne%2C%20Airwallex%20supports%20over%20100%2C000%20businesses%20globally%20and%20is%20trusted%20by%20brands%20such%20as%20Brex%2C%20Rippling%2C%20Navan%2C%20Qantas%2C%20SHEIN%20and%20many%20more">over 100,000 global companies</a> as of August 2024 including brands such as Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN, among others.In June 2024, Airwallex <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/31001">partnered with</a> <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/287424">QuickBooks</a>, a financial reporting software platform, to provide multi-currency reporting with automated transaction syncing. In February 2024, Airwallex entered into a multi-year partnership with McLaren Formula 1 team, to offer multi-currency payment options to meet its supply chain payments for all Grands Prix. Airwallex also <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18874">partnered with</a> open banking platform <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/456059">TrueLayer</a> in May 2023, to mutually improve cross-border, multi-currency open banking payments, by leveraging TrueLayer’s real-time, account-to-account (A2A) payments infrastructure. The company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15739?industryIds=53">partnered with Amex</a> in January 2023, to enable customers to accept payments through Amex cards. Airwallex noted that it offered over 60 payment methods for its customers, upon the inclusion of Amex cards.In May 2022, it joined software developer <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10665">HubSpot’s App Accelerator program</a> to provide HubSpot users with access to Airwallex’s global financial infrastructure. Airwallex <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14169">subsequently partnered</a> with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/1201250">Atome</a> in November 2022, to enable Airwallex merchants to offer payment by installments to their customers.

Alloy offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform and unified API service for banks and FinTechs to embed identity and fraud compliance. The platform integrates with over 160 data sources (as of September 2022), and also offers a dashboard for enterprise customers to automate identity and fraud-related decisions. The company also <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/6132">added credit underwriting to its offering in October 2021 </a>, with the intention of building comprehensive views of customers in line with their onboarding and transaction monitoring products.Key customers and partnershipsIn May 2024, the company partnered with Coris, an SMB data intelligence company, to integrate automated SMB onboarding, underwriting, and fraud prevention solutions.<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9794">Alloy partnered </a>with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/492317">Veriff </a>in April 2022 to enhance its know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions for banks and FinTechs. By accessing Veriff’s identity verification solutions, Alloy enables its clients to combat fraud when onboarding customers and when monitoring transactions and credit decisions. Moreover, Alloy’s users can access KYC solutions in over 190 countries.Alloy reportedly served over 300 customers as of September 2022, including Ally Bank, HMBradley, Gemini, Ramp, Brex, and Evolve Bank &amp; Trust.

Providing a seamless consumer experience is one hope for bringing back brick and mortar retail, automated stores are being built to do just that.

Automated Stores

<div>
 
 SuperSmart offers a proprietary machine learning algorithm (scan-and-go software) which uses weight sensors, image recognition, shopping patterns, and customer big data to validate self-scanning transactions in physical stores. SuperSmart enables customers to scan a barcode at the store entrance using a shopper app on their mobile device, scan their purchases using the device, and complete the transaction via a self-checkout kiosk.
 
 
 SuperSmart also provides two self-checkout kiosks powered by cameras, computer vision, and weight sensors to facilitate scanning items inside a shopper&rsquo;s basket.
 
 
 1) Mini Wave, equipped with two cameras, facilitates customers to place baskets of less than 30-kilogram items on its tray. Mini Wave claims a validation time of three seconds and reportedly can process 120 customers per an hour.&nbsp;
 
 
 2) Walk-Through is a solution that supports carts of three sizes and consists of a scale surface and two cameras. It can be placed on the floor of a store and supports a scale capacity of 200&ndash;600 kg. It claims a validation time of three seconds and the ability to process 90 customers per an hour.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In February 2021, the company had distribution agreements with several European supermarket chains, including the Metro supermarkets. In 2024, Israeli retail chain Osher-Ad partnered with SuperSmart to adopt its shopping platform with loss prevention technology.&nbsp;
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 SuperSmart raised USD 10 million in January 2022 in a funding round led by Millennium Food Tech. The company expected to use the proceeds to develop new products, expand its global customer base, further develop existing technology, and increase its workforce.
 
</div>

Platforms, apps, and cards to keep the corporate wallet in check

Business Expense Management

AppZen offers an AI-based payable and expense auditing automation platform to optimize the decision-making of finance teams. The AI platform delivers intelligent decision-making solutions by leveraging computer vision, deep learning, and semantic analysis of thousands of online sources to understand financial transactions and their business context.Its accounts payable (AP) solutions cover the process from invoice entry to enforcing spend policies and auditing AP spending. Users can also automate standard operating procedures (SOPs) and check payments so that they can choose when to pay. Invoices are audited for duplicates and can be automatically entered in relevant accounting, procurement, or ERP systems using its integrations (which include Oracle, SAP Ariba, and Coupa). AppZen claims its solution improved AP efficiency by 80%.The expense audit solution helps organizations verify expense claims against the activity, such as comparing travel expense claims against the distance traveled (among other data points). The audit solution can identify unauthorized purchases in over 40 languages, thereby supporting cross-border businesses in mitigating fraud.AppZen also launched an AppStore in June 2021 to offer users easy access to finance AI apps to automate spend management, compliance, and decrease finance team workloads, without straining its in-house IT resources. This includes common spend controls such as monitoring alcohol spend, detecting US sales taxes, rental car upgrades, and sign-in sheet detection.Key customers and partnershipsAppZen had over 1,800 customers as of June 2021, including large enterprises such as Salesforce, Airbus, Amazon, and Novartis. Its customer base spans over 40 countries and comprises roughly a third of the Fortune 500 companies (as of April 2022).In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/35604">November 2024</a>. The company partnered with&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/31660">JAGGAER</a> to enhance AI-driven invoice processing automation&nbsp;&nbsp;

Providing AI-driven market intelligence and workflow automation to give firms an edge

Capital Markets Tech

Alloy is an identity decisioning platform that helps banks and FinTech companies automate fraud, credit, and compliance decisions. Alloy's platform connects financial institutions to over 170 data sources (as of February 2023) through a single API, enabling them to verify identities, prevent fraud, monitor transactions, and make credit underwriting decisions. The company's core offerings include customer and business identity verification, decisioning, transaction monitoring, and credit decisioning.Alloy's platform allows financial institutions to automate identity decisions during account origination and monitor them on an ongoing basis. The company's solution combines information captured during onboarding with ongoing transaction and account activity to create evolving customer risk profiles. This enables clients to prevent fraud and remain compliant throughout the customer lifecycle. Alloy's technology can automate over 80% of new account openings while minimizing risks.As of August 2022, the company operated in over 40 countries, providing document verification support for 195 countries.&nbsp;Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;As of February 2023, Alloy served over 350 banks and FinTech companies worldwide. Some of its notable clients are Carta, Ramp, and Brex.&nbsp;The company partnered with Prove (March 2022) to enhance digital onboarding and reduce fraud risk for financial institutions. Additionally, Alloy collaborated with Veriff in April 2022 to strengthen its know-your-customer (KYC) offerings and fight identity fraud. In March 2023, Alloy announced a partnership with Kyckr to provide its clients with enhanced know-your-business (KYB) capabilities for companies outside the US.

A decentralized version of the web powered by the blockchain

Web3 Ecosystem

Based in Canada, Axelar provides a secure cross-chain communication platform for developers to build and deploy dApps across multiple blockchains. The company was formed by the creators of the&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/600251">Algorand</a> blockchain. Axelar consists of 1) a network layer that is an open overlay network that offers Turing-complete cross-chain communication, which is monitored by delegated validators through a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and 2) an API layer, which is the application development layer that sits on top of the network layer. Developers use APIs and SDKs to build and deploy dApps across multiple interoperable blockchains, without the need to roll out or manage the blockchain infrastructure. As of August 2022, Axelar supported interoperability between 17 different blockchains including Ethereum, Avalanche, and Polygon.In October 2024, Axelar launched the&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/34400">Mobius Development Stack (MDS)</a> on its mainnet, providing a customizable platform for integrating with various blockchain and off-chain systems. MDS enables developers to create multichain applications, offering flexible security options and native token management across multiple chains.Key customers and partnerships<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/20003">In July 2023</a>, the company partnered with&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/201465">Microsoft</a> to improve Web3 adoption by constructing a data integration and interoperability layer that connects isolated blockchain networks. The collaboration seeked to utilize Axelar's secure cross-chain communication network with Microsoft Azure, allowing customers of the latter to construct new Web3 apps. In addition, it partnered with&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/620114">Immutable</a> (<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25892">in January 2024</a>) to enable the latter to onboard players across 50+ blockchains and increase liquidity through new user funding channels, by integrating games built on Immutable's zkEVM into the Axelar network.

Ensuring the right people access the right resources at the right time

Identity & Access Management

Alloy operates an identity decisioning platform that helps banks and fintech companies verify customer identities, prevent fraud, and maintain regulatory compliance. The platform connects to over 160 data sources through a single API to automate identity decisions during account origination and monitor them on an ongoing basis. Alloy's technology combines information captured during onboarding with ongoing transaction and account activity to create evolving customer risk profiles. The platform enables companies to pull together data sources and policies to compile a centralized view of customer risk, allowing them to automate and customize KYC, KYB, AML and fraud checks. As of September 2022, Alloy processed over a million decisions per day and had doubled its annual recurring revenue over the previous year. The company's clients are able to reduce fraud by 50% and automate 98% of customer onboarding decisions, while increasing good customer conversions by 30%.
Key customers and partnerships
Alloy serves over 300 customers including major financial institutions like Ally Bank, Brex, Gemini, Ramp, Evolve Bank & Trust, HMBradley, and Petal. In April 2022, Alloy partnered with Veriff to provide additional identity verification capabilities and KYC solutions for client onboarding across 190+ countries. The company also established partnerships with IDology in July 2020 to enable access to identity verification and authentication services, and with Prove in March 2022 to enhance customer onboarding through phone-centric identity solutions.

“Zhabka” is the first versatile payment service for individuals and businesses  ''Zhabka'' allows you to pay, accept payments and transfer means via any social network or messenger.  “Zhabka” is a free mobile application, which turns a smartphone into a POS-terminal. Using “Zhabka” entrepreneurs can receive payments and send receipts for payment in any messenger. “Zhabka” also allows to transfer or request for a transfer of funds from card to card via Apple Pay and Google Pay, or enter the card number manually - in Viber, Telegram and other messengers.

RemOnline is a software company that offers web and mobile applications for the small and SME's.

Neofin is a Shopify for lending business. It is a low-code SaaS for lending automation that allows launching any lending business in as fast as 15 minutes, establishing the credit products in 1 hour, and issuing credits and earning the same day. Neofin's modulated platform enables a financial institution to create full-cycle loan applications and services such as PDL or BNPL directly from our easy-to-use Control Panel. Its modules include: - POS front-end/ BNPL widget - Loan Management system - Borrower area site builder - Debt collection - Digital onboarding and KYC - CRM/marketing - Decision engine/credit scoring

Electronic KYC provides customer verification solutions for business sectors. That offers video verification, 3D liveness detection, 2Factor authentication, and address verification features.

Axelar is a cross-chain communication tool developing interoperability software to connect blockchain ecosystems, applications, and users. Axelar Network consists of a protocol suite, tools, and APIs, designed to break down the barriers to cross-chain communication. Axelar enables developers to build on the best platform for their needs while leveraging the Axelar stack to unlock cross-chain composability and liquidity. The company was founded by Sergey Gorbunov and Georgios Vlachos in 2020.

Coala Pay is building a full-stack solution for aid organizations to verify and deliver aid funding. Beyond payments, Coala Pay uses AI-powered tooling to track the success of dollars delivered and provide traceability of funds.

Suberra provides products that help businesses accept crypto payments and innovates to enhance the user experience for crypto payments. Their services include accepting crypto payments for commerce, one-time payments, and subscriptions.

Qonbay is an integrated platform that offers a reward programme together with business solutions. Qonbay Provides sellers and creators with the tools they need to build web3-based customer loyalty programmes that improve scalability and make it easier to move between the real world and the virtual world.

RociFi has developed a protocol that leverages on-chain data, machine learning and decentralized identity data to facilitate undercollateralized loans via the blockchain. Its scoring process will identify a borrower’s trustworthiness based on their digital identity and allow lenders to lend their money according to their credit risk scores.

Achieving climate goals starts with the workforce. Mammoth Climate helps organizations meet climate targets by empowering employee-led emissions reduction. Our platform rewards employees for improving their climate literacy and for making sweeping changes that reduce corporate emissions and save money.

Agora offers financial institutions a robust and customizable cloud-based offering that enables banking customers to utilize and manage accounts in real-time. Community banks and credit unions leveraging Agora Services’ product offerings accelerate their digital experience without replacing their core banking system while they improve the user experience and create opportunities to increase deposits and revenues. Financial Institutions and Fintech can also launch complete stand alone digital solutions by leveraging Agora's challenger bank platform and most advanced Fintech ecosystem. Agora Services’ product lines are built to attract specific audiences that sit outside of the traditional banking customer. For instance, the three product sets built offer a customized banking experience for teens and their parents, gig economy worker, contractor or individuals outside of the traditional working circumstances, and elderly accounts. The parent and teen account offering provide parents access and oversight to a separate account offered to their teens that give the teen financial freedom but allows the parents oversight into the account. Through this product offering, teens can have a virtual or physical card, p2p payments offering and for the parent an easier way to pay allowance or loan money with insight into the transactions and parameters of the teen’s banking experience. For gig economy workers, contractors and individuals who do not have the typical type of work, Agora Services offers a banking experience that provides offerings like virtual onboarding, physical and digital cards as well as transaction oversight for an easier way to manage their unique business. The elderly and their caretakers often struggle when it comes to finances to make sure there are adequate funds, ensuring the transactions are legitimate and that they have what they need to complete a payment. This is where Agora Services comes in to play. Through this product line, Agora offers both account holder and either family or caretaker access to the account to ensure banking and transactional needs are fulfilled as well as the ability to stop any potential fraud that could be detrimental. Through Agora Services, financial institutions can implement solutions that ensure the customer and their unique banking needs are met.

Lidya is a financial services platform to improve access to credit and finance across frontier and emerging markets starting with Nigeria. We use mobile-first technology with a strong customer experience and proprietary credit scoring algorithms to help small & medium businesses open an account online in 15 minutes, manage funds, and access credit needed to grow their businesses and plan their futures. In addition, we have created dashboards and tools to help businesses manage their receivables and cashflow to build credit scores that unlock higher credit limits and affordable rates. Welcome to Lidya. Welcome to the future.

AID:Tech enables people to own, control, manage and monetise their Digital Identity metadata. In doing so, we link to Payments and provide unique insights and data enhancements AID:Tech was launched in 2016 and founded by Joseph Thompson and Niall Dennehy.

RecommenderX is an A.I. company, specialising in developing cutting-edge data analytics and recommender systems solutions for the enterprise market. We leverage our Recommendation as a Service (RaaS) cloud platform to convert data into actionable insights, measurably improving business value.  With a background in AI academic research, the tech team at RecommenderX have extensive experience combining techniques and technologies from the areas of Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, User Modelling, Information Retrieval, Personalisation and Human-Computer Interaction.  We design, develop and deploy cutting-edge solutions for MNCs in various enterprise verticals including, FinTech, Travel and Telecommunications. We develop data and visualisation applications for companies that are looking to digitally transform their currently manual processes. We also have a range of API-Platform products which can be integrated into and augment a company's current solution.

Airwallex is a global payment and financial platform that removes the unnecessary friction and cost inherent in the traditional financial system to help entrepreneurs achieve their global ambitions. Airwallex manages everything from payments, treasury, and spend management to embedded finance all in one single platform. Airwallex purpose is to connect entrepreneurs, business builders, makers and creators with opportunities in every corner of the world.

Mozio is an airport ground transportation search engine. We help you travel that final mile from the airport to your final destination.  Mozio originated out of founder David Litwak's travels, where he was constantly frustrated by flying into new destinations and realizing he had no clue how to actually get into the city.  Mozio aggregates all the local taxis, limos, public transit, shared-ride shuttles, airporters, rideshare etc. to help you navigate all the local options and make sure you get the best deal.  We have raised a small seed round from Amidzad Partners, and a few angels, one of whom is the Chairman of the Board @ Orbitz. We are super excited to make this dream a reality!

Itembase is an e-commerce API integration platform. It is a marketplace that connects e-commerce shops with solution providers. It allows solution providers to offer services on multiple shop systems by solely integrating with itembase. Today, already more than 120,000 e-commerce shops get access to the best solutions tailored to the needs. Itembase was founded on 2011 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

PayKey enables banks to provide their customers with the ability to initiate and complete a range of financial services, including P2P payments, chatbot engagement, balance check, cardless withdrawal, and more, from within any mobile application. Offering a cross-platform banking button on the smartphone’s keyboard boosts the bank’s brand engagement while making the banking experience quick, contextual, and simple for users.  Banks are battling to remain relevant as they face an unprecedented competitive environment coupled with changing consumer expectations for instantaneous, highly-efficient, and seamless financial experiences. In a time where consumers expect to access services from any channel at any time, PayKey is helping banks to improve their user experience and boost their brand engagement by enabling their customers to access financial services from within any mobile application.

Cyberfend offers a robust security solution to protect your web and mobile applications from sophisticated attacks and fraudulent activity. Cyberfend uses a new security paradigm – human cognitive science combined with advanced machine learning. The solution detects account takeover, payment fraud and stolen credentials, in real time with near zero false positives.  Cyberfend's Cognitive Security Engine solves several challenging problems with zero false positives. Cyberfend's BotFender is the most comprehensive bot/automation detection service available in the market today.

ViSenze is the world's smartest product discovery platform. Retailers like ASOS, H&M, Rakuten, Zalora, Meesho, DFS, and EyeBuyDirect trust ViSenze to power their product discovery.  ViSenze processes over a billion queries a month from retailers, supporting them in-store and on ecommerce sites. Use cases range from enhanced search, product tagging, smart recommendations and merchandising analytics. ViSenze’s automated AI platform empowers retail merchants to increase revenue by delivering exceptional experiences that make it easier for shoppers to discover products. - Gartner Hype Cycle for Retail Technologies 2021 - CB Insights Retail Technology 100 - Top AI Companies 2022 - Leading Product Recommendation Vendor 2022

UBIO's managed automation service transforms websites into powerful transactional and data APIs, giving our customers the power back over their own customers’ journey. UBIO can connect anything on the web, both websites and APIs, providing rich data and performing any interaction. Our customers include Google and trivago. We power their ability to collect availability and price data from over 50,000 hotels around the world, and we power organisations such as kiwi.com to sell airline tickets and TickX to sell theatre tickets. Our teams are based across Europe and are dedicated to building technology that makes meaningful connections between the services on the web and delivering business outcomes for our customers.

InvoiceSharing is a free electronic invoice distribution platform for its clients to connect their accountings systems or electronic invoicing platforms. Through the platform, accounting and invoice scanning software companies send and receive electronic invoices directly from their system to their client systems. It is comprised of an accounting-robot as well as an application store with products that use invoices to decrease cost and improve cashflow of a business. The platform connects systems and distributes invoices for free, and makes revenues from the sale of premium products. It also provides white label versions of the platform to banks, software companies, etc.

Supersmart is the world's leading loss-prevention solution for self-scan transactions. Supersmart uses its proprietary machine-learning, AI algorithm to validate all self-scanning transactions in physical stores. Our solution enables retailers to confidently provide self-scanning options to their customers, enhancing customer experience without sacrificing potential loss. The Israel-based company was founded in 2014 by Yair Cleper and Amir Ayalon.

Saida is a lending platform for emerging markets starting in Africa, allowing borrowers to get approved for a loan instantly right from their mobile phone. It is available in select countries - open the Playstore link below to see if Saida is available in your country.

dopay provides a cloud-based payroll service that allows employers to calculate salaries and make payments electronically.  Worldwide there are 2 billion people that have jobs but no bank account. Companies feel this acutely. Since both their employees and their customers are unbanked, they have to manage huge amounts of cash.  DoPay breaks this cash cycle by offering a payroll and cash management service for companies. Employees receive a DoPay card and DoPay app, which give them a full banking experience.  They are already working in partnership with Barclays to provide payroll services to several multinationals, embassies and local companies in Egypt and aim to expand into the largest unbanked regions of the world.

Float is a mobile-first financial service that helps young consumers access, manage, and proactively build credit. We offer thin-file consumers instant access to an affordable line of credit, direct from any smartphone, no FICO required.

N-Frnds universal digital inclusion solution is bringing ALL people in the emerging markets into the digital world. Our technology platform closes the digital divide with a lucrative business model. Today, over 4 billion individuals and small businesses are not connected to the internet. The advertising model supporting “free” applications does not work in emerging markets. Furthermore, companies in emerging markets cannot digitally reach their customers and suppliers. The result is billions of dollars of lost revenues and inefficiency costs. Attempts by others to solve this have failed, mainly because their solutions have focused on mobile data, direct to consumer and channel ownership - excluding most of the market and the existing distribution networks. N-Frnds unique cloud-based digital distribution platform • includes the whole market – can be reached from any device, even with no internet connectivity • utilizes our customer-partners’ existing consumer value chains  • consolidates the value chains into our unified digital distribution platform (including all its participants) • creates new digital users incentivized by our customer-partners N-Frnds solution is: • Proven - Massive buy-in from market, from consumer and financial businesses, including companies such as: Microsoft (who selected us as a strategic partner), Coca cola, Nestle, Government of Rwanda, Sequis (insurance), BTPN (bank), MasterCard • Scalable - we have already digitized 15 million end-users and distribution networks of over 200k agents • Unique – ground-breaking technology protected by 21 patents • Global - Local country “franchise” model with a global technology platform N-Frnds is led by top entrepreneurs with deep expertise in emerging markets and together with our innovative and lucrative business model and our market proven solution, we are the market leader bringing universal digital and financial inclusion in emerging markets.

LiveApp is a mobile marketing platform that saves businesses and their customers time by providing an enriched experience that increases customer satisfaction. From $49/month, businesses can give their customers a mobile app for BlackBerry, Android, iPhone and iPad with their own icon and content to efficiently communicate with their customers.

Everledger is a global technology enterprise specializing in addressing real-world economic, environmental, and societal challenges through their solutions that create ecosystems of trust. It is an ecosystem of trust is where all stakeholders within a network, are able to collaborate through a trusted data protocol. This trust is created through the ability to transparently trace and manage assets throughout their lifetime journey, across different touchpoints within the ecosystem. The company's breakthrough solutions harness the latest in emerging technologies including smart contracts, machine vision, and IoT, together with their proven and scalable blockchain-enabled platform. They combine a rich forensic approach to identify and track asset provenance to provide confidence in the transparency driven across global supply chains. This brings disparate stakeholders together with the trust that has been built. Everledger is independently committed to deploying scalable solutions for its clients’ needs today while having the freedom to lead with breakthrough solutions that tackle the challenges they face.

Control helps businesses understand and manage their online payments. Integrated with Stripe, PayPal, and other payment processors, Control delivers real-time payment analytics, payments management, and fraud tools to any device. They've helped over 10,000 businesses process over $20M in transactions on their mobile devices and deliver 1M+ time-sensitive alerts each month.

Moneytree is a fintech data platform, with a mission to bring people and institutions closer together, help them find balance and discover new opportunities to grow personal wealth. Moneytree's first product, a personal finance app for iOS released in 2013, won the App Store’s “Best of” award for iPhone in Japan after only 8 months in market. It went on to win Best of 2014 for iPad, was one of 10 Apple Watch apps featured pre-launch and a featured iMessage app on the launch of iOS 10. Moneytree has over 1,300,000 users on iOS, Android and web. Our proprietary data aggregation platform, Moneytree LINK, has almost twenty enterprise clients, including Japan’s two largest accounting software vendors, an industry first inbound API with Mizuho Bank, an SDK integration SMBC (Mitsui Sumitomo) and multiple regional banks in Japan.

LaunchKey is a multifactor authentication (MFA) and realtime authorization platform that leverages the mobile devices end-users already own for password-free login, 2-step verification, step-up and adaptive authentication, realtime transaction authorization, on-demand identity verification, multi-party approval, and more -- all through one unified solution that virtually any online or connected application can leverage. It is now a part of iovation, an online and mobile fraud prevention and advanced device-based authentication. Learn more about LaunchKey MFA: https://www.iovation.com/launchkey-mfa

Nowsta is an all-in-one software for hourly and event-based workforces, providing scheduling, time tracking, and fintech solutions. It helps employers become better managers by giving them the tools they need to seamlessly manage their hourly workforce. The company is building a platform that leverages advancements in machine learning and payments technology to reimagine the way companies communicate with, and pay their hourly wage employees. Nowsta was established in 2015 and is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, United States. Nowsta

Poor decisions cost organisations billions yearly. Rainbird lets you build visual models of your smartest employees’ thought processes, then uses these models to automate decision making at rates typically 100x faster and 25% more accurate, with full explainability. Rainbird prevents billions being lost due to inconsistent, uninformed decision making. How does Rainbird automate complex decisions? 1. Capture expertise without coding Using a visual modeller, create knowledge maps of the thought processes applied by subject matter experts in any field. Knowledge maps aren’t linear (like decision trees in robotic process automation) or opaque (like machine learning models). This means you can productise expertise and make it available at scale. 2. Ask complex questions Pose questions or scenarios to Rainbird that align with the area of knowledge covered by your map. You can do this using conversational interfaces, APIs or other systems. Rainbird will provide answers with varying levels of certainty, even when dealing with ambiguity or incomplete data. This improves the accuracy of nuanced, multidimensional analyses, like fraud detection.  3. Get explanations for answers Ask Rainbird why it’s given you a particular answer and it will show an evidence tree of its reasoning, including all considered variables and the quantitative impact of each. This ensures you can comply with regulations and enjoy the full confidence of customers. Book a demo today to find out how Rainbird can ensure every decision in your organisation benefits from the required expertise: https://rainbird.ai/demo-page/

Alloy is a developer of an identity verification platform used to check for fraud and make identity management effective and simple for banks and financial institutions. Alloy is an API for regulated companies to collect and manage customer data from many different sources. It also engages in helping financial institutions and FinTech companies solve identity and compliance problems. The service allows banks and FinTechs to make better risk and identification decisions using a single API and dashboard to manage AML, fraud, KYC, and more.

Rippleshot reduces over 25% of fraud losses for banks and merchants by uncovering merchant data breaches and stopping card fraud sooner.  Rippleshot’s technology monitors tens of millions of merchants to pinpoint when and where a data breached occurred.  Rippleshot stops losses, protects brand reputation, and safeguards the consumer payment experience.  Get immediate results visualized through our cloud-based big data analytics platform.

Rubbles is a leading Russian IT company specializing in developing solutions for optimizing key business processes of large businesses based on processing large data sets.

Big Data Scoring (BDS) is the leading big data based credit scoring solutions provider globally. The company’s unique selling point lies in the ability to collect 5,000-15,000 additional data points per each consumer from a wide variety of alternative data sources that have so far been ignored by lenders. Combination of such data with more traditional data sources allows building the most accurate scorecards on the market. This allows lenders to operate in the thin file segments as well as increase credit approval rates and better manage credit quality. Delivered over 0.7 billion scores, specially for unbanked people and SME granting access to their first loan to millions of people. At BDS we help the world´s unbanked population to break the poverty vice cycle through enriched AI, allowing them to gain access to a first fair funding. We are proud of having a 100% success rate in enriching hundreds of thin file predictive models for banking, online lenders, telco industry, etc. in Asia, Africa, Europe, America with no exception. We hold unique tools and technology to raise descriptive & behavioral data from every person in the planet.

ClubApp is a live scoring platform for sports clubs of all sizes.  It was founded in 2012.

Billhop is a payment institution that enables businesses and consumers to pay bills and invoices with their credit cards. Founded in 2011, the company is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Sling empowers the underserved micro-merchant sector, enabling them to unlock mobile finance to grow their business.  More than 200m micro-businesses (flea market vendors, sole traders, etc) around the world are underserved by the entire financial chain: Unbanked. Un-Credited. Un-Technological.   Sling is democratizing technology, enabling micro-businesses (tier 6, estimated at $80b USD) to finally adopt advanced payment methods, unlock analytics and leverage loyalty channels that have been nonexistent until now.  No hardware. Instant onboarding. Zero friction between micro-merchant and consumer  Merchants onboard the service in mere minutes and start accepting payments in a frictionless process. Merchants are geared with payment-enabled tangibles, named 'Slings'; payment bracelet, labels​ and tag.  Sling's unique non-hardware tangible elements serve as both roving POS (at 0 cost) as well as an 'access key'​ to a variety of unique FinTech capacities called Pebbles

SBDA Group is an ML company that provides large enterprises with solutions for boosting customer engagement.

Apruve eliminates the need for suppliers to manage Accounts Receivable by extending payment terms to business buyers on behalf of their suppliers.  Suppliers get paid in 24 hrs, buyers get payment terms. The program is completely automated and sits inside either an ERP or eCommerce framework to handle both online and offline orders. A B2B version of Visa. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Apruve was launched in 2013.

Splitwise is a mobile application and web-based platform that helps its users share expenses with one another, including roommates, travelers, couples, friends, and family. It organizes all its users’ shared expenses and IOUs in one place so that everyone can see who they owe. It sends its users monthly reminders about outstanding debts. The application also provides its users with mediation advice about fairness issues through its fairness calculators. These calculators turn crowdsourced data into a neutral fairness opinion about its users’ personal situations. Splitwise was launched in 2011 and is based in Providence, Rhode Island.

AppZen is an artificial intelligence platform for modern finance teams, helping them to reduce spend, comply with policy, and streamline process. It automates manual process, uncovers problems, and optimizes decision making for enterprises around the globe, including one-fourth of the Fortune 500.  The platform combines patented deep learning, computer vision, and semantic analysis with intelligence from thousands of online data sources to understand financial transactions in business context and make decisions before those transactions happen. AppZen was founded in 2012.

Footmarks brings creative experiences and digital intelligence to physical spaces. The company's SmartConnect platform is a simple, secure, and scalable solution with zero touchpoints required from field reps or retail partners. From facilities and warehouses all the way to the retail floor, Footmarks provides actionable data to increase execution rates, increase sales, and reduce waste. It aims to improve in-store display execution rates across the retail landscape. Footmarks was founded in 2012 and is located in Bellevue, Washington.

CardFlight is committed to making payment acceptance easy for business owners. SwipeSimple, our signature product, is used by more than 50,000 small business across the US.  Ten of the top 30 merchant acquirers in the US recommend SwipeSimple because the products easy for businesses to use. CardFlight takes pride in building SaaS solutions that are ahead of the curve in technology, reliability, and user experience. Delivering simple payment solutions and quick response to industry shifts, has made us one of the fastest growing companies in America. To learn more about our company and team, visit www.cardflight.com From iOS and Android apps to a Virtual Terminal to EMV and NFC contactless card readers, SwipeSimple products offer just what small businesses need. CardFlight is a PCI Level 1 compliant service provider supporting all major US processors. CardFlight takes pride in building and maintaining solutions that are a step ahead of the curve in technology, reliability, and user experience. As the US leader in EMV Quick Chip enablement, CardFlight makes it easy, accessible, and secure for partners and merchants to accept payments.

Slide has created a mobile wallet for gift cards that lets you check your balance on all your cards and discover nearby locations where you can use your cards.

Pay By Group's white-label checkout solution is the fastest way for any merchant to integrate group-payment and installment capabilities into their online checkout. Our clients span travel, e-commerce, and healthcare and love the fact we increase conversions by 27% or more for this highly lucrative business segment.

PennyOwl Allowance is a unique app that offers parents a safe way to give their kids real-world money experience from an early age.  Kids receive money from parents, guardians and extended family - save money automatically, and are empowered to spend responsibly or inspired to give to charity.  These tools stimulate how kids think about money in a way that helps develop good financial habits.    PennyOwl Allowance is the top-rated allowance app for android, COPPA compliant, ''kidSAFE'' and PCI-DSS Level 1 certified.

Sellers simply provide a picture, and Gone intelligently handles pricing, last-mile logistics, warehousing, marketplace listing, and payment processing. Buyers on Gone’s forthcoming marketplace will browse a curated collection of fully inspected and warrantied used items with detailed images and descriptions and significant discounts.  According to Nielsen, American households have $3,100 worth of unused purchases hidden in drawers and closets. Gone’s suite of services unlocks this value by removing the research, shipping, and buyer interaction challenges for sellers and delivering riskless, quality-assured used items to buyers.

Dash is a mobile payment platform that allows patrons to view, split, and pay their tab from their smartphone. It integrates directly with the leading hospitality point-of-sale systems, which means it's extremely easy for restaurants to accept Dash as payment. Users benefit from bill splitting, itemized digital transactions, increased security, and ease of closing out a tab at a busy bar. Dash is lives in 30+ markets and processes thousands of transactions weekly. Dash was founded in 2011 by Jeff McGregor and Gennady Spirin, with backers including Great Oaks VC, Caerus Ventures, New York Angels, and Jonathan Segal.

SpendLabs is an AI-enabled accounts payable auditing and recovery platform, serving over 40 industries globally. With a focus on combining its market-leading AI technology .

Standard Treasury, a YC-backed company, is hoping to make it easier for businesses to deal with their banks through standard APIs that ease transfers and other transactions.  The company says that integrating banking services for small businesses and startups is overly complicated. They can end up sending large files over FTP with specs that take up hundreds of pages.

Launched July 2014, LocalMaven is a platform that allows businesses, influencers and customers to connect with each other and benefit from word-of-mouth referrals.  In January of 2015 LocalMaven launched RealtyMaven.com, its first market specific website,  to focus on the Real estate agent-to-business referral marketplace.  Over 5,500,000 homes were sold in the United States in 2014, renovations in the United States exceed $500B annually, and there are over 1,000,000 Realtors that are members of the National Association of Realtors.  RealtyMaven is tapping into this vast marketplace for Realtor referrals.   Using the RealtyMaven app and website, real estate agents refer their clients to trusted local businesses that can provide the services and products needed for their new or existing home purchase. From contractors to landscapers and from lighting providers to carpet cleaners, RealtorMaven provides a simple platform for Realtors to give referrals to their clients.  In turn, businesses provide insider deals for clients and a commission for each successful referral.   Every time a successful referral takes place, the customer gets an exclusive deal, the Realtor earns a commission, and the business grows. It’s a win-win-win.  **The original LocalMaven.com site remains operational and facilitates more generalized referrals between Mavens (or people in the know) and businesses.

Storee is a technology platform that enables brick-and-mortar retailers to sell both in-store and online, combined with inventory management, customer loyalty and business analytics tools.

Ridango is an IT-solutions provider for public transport with focus on Automated Fare Collection (AFC) and Real-Time Passenger Information (RTPI) systems. Ridango runs ticketing projects on end-to-end basis, meaning that we provide both hardware and software, but also handle installations, education and later operations during the whole contract period. From the first installation to the current ones Ridango has always focused on the online systems, meaning that there has never been a need to make a change from the legacy card systems to the account-based system. With more than a decade of experience in the field, the company has added RTPI, mobile applications, contactless payments and fleet management to its solutions along with ticketing.  Ridango’s payment, ticketing and RTPI solutions are designed to be customer oriented in order to cope with the ever-changing market. Nowadays travellers demand an interoperability, an ease of ticket purchase and up to date information. Ridango’s mission is to create solutions that are smart, simple and efficient and at the same time improve the quality of travels on one hand for the passengers and on the other hand help to keep focus on their core business for transit operators and agencies. Thanks to modularity, all our services may be deployed in any size of agency or operator with an unlimited number of actual users.

ZenCard turns existing payment cards, issued by any bank in any system, into universal loyalty & rewards cards giving retailers full control over the loyalty program by installing small piece of software on their existing payment terminals and giving them access to the merchant web panel so they can easily setup loyalty marketing campaigns.

Xpreso's goal is to eliminate the “Sorry We Missed You” card that online buyers receive due to failed delivery attempts. The Xpreso SaaS solution allows e-retailers and delivery companies increase first-time delivery success rate by offering online customers real-time tracking and accurate arrival times. This is complemented by re-direction options to a neighbour, parcel shop or parcel locker. Xpreso also allows customers choose an alternative delivery time, pay-on-delivery and one-touch returns.  Xpreso are winners of the NDRC Launchpad 8 programme in Dec 2013 - the NDRC were named in the top 2.5% of business incubators in the world in Jun 2014. Xpreso were also one of eight companies in Europe selected by MasterCard for their Start Path accelerator programme in July 2014. Founders include an established expert of the courier business and award-winning engineers.

MePIN is a white label strong authentication platform for large service providers and a ready-to-go authentication service for small and medium sized online services. MePIN secures online identities and payments with complete flexibility; choose your authentication methods and policies, or offer them all for the end-users to choose from. Integration is easy with the unified MePIN Services API.  Meontrust Inc is an independent cybersecurity specialist company based in Finland. Since the founding in 2010, the company has grown to an international solution provider with customers and partners all around the world. The company is funded by independent investors from USA, Hong Kong and Finland, and is a member of MasterCard Start Path and FIDO Alliance. Further information is available at www.mepin.com.

Mastercard Start Path is a global effort to support innovative early stage companies developing the next generation of commerce solutions today. Start Path was launched at the end of 2013 with an objective to help early stage startups succeed by leveraging a variety of options to work together. Startups can benefit from the knowledge of a global network of Mastercard experts, access to Mastercard customers and partners, and the ability to innovate on top of Mastercard solutions. For more information visit www.startpath.com or follow Mastercard Start Path on Twitter at @MAstartpath

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