Five startups in the Asia Pacific region were chosen to join Visa’s first accelerator program, which seeks to find innovations in digital payments. Brankas, Curlec, DigitSecure, ModusBox, and Open are tasked to create defined commercial opportunities to collaborate on new payment solutions with Visa.

The five startups will also have a chance to work with Visa’s network of bank and merchant partners to see if their existing solutions, tried and tested in their home markets, are ready for growth.

Visa is a leading digital solutions company that offer services for consumers, businesses, banks, and governments.

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“Hundreds of startups came forward with outstanding ideas for new and enhanced commerce experiences, but the five participants we’ve selected truly stood out,” said Chris Clark, regional president, Asia Pacific, Visa. “We’re excited to work with each of the startups in our first cohort to bring their concepts to life and expand their businesses into new markets across the region.”

A key goal for the accelerator program is to support startups that have launched successful solutions in their home markets as they plan their next stage of growth.

Five startups

The five startups will work on some of the most pressing financial and technological opportunities in APAC:

Brankas, which has a presence in key markets in Southeast Asia, is a fintech company that provides financial software and solutions, will leverage the open banking and open data environment to create new payment and data-led experiences.

Curlec, a subscription management platform in Malaysia, helps small businesses automate the direct debit application and approval process with banks.

ModusBox, which operates globally with headquarters in the United States, is an open-source platform for real-time payments that develops new ways to pay and be paid digitally to help drive financial inclusion for more consumers and businesses.

Open Banking from India is a neo-banking (online only) platform for small businesses.

DigitSecure, also from India is an omnichannel payments acceptance platform.

The Visa Accelerator Program is designed for entrepreneurs to quickly test and validate partnership opportunities through an accelerated Proof of Concept (POC) over a much shorter period. This is to give promising startups more time to grow their business, move forward with a fast-tracked path to pilots, create partnerships, and luanch commercialization post-program.