MasterCard announces Start Path for start-ups

NEW YORK: MasterCard has announced six-month program named Start Path class.

Under the program, start-ups will obtain customized mentoring from MasterCard experts, access to the company’s commercial partners and the opportunity to integrate with MasterCard solutions. The start-ups will also have access to nearly 40 start-ups that have been previously mentored by Start Path.

The inaugural MasterCard global Start Path class includes:

• Control: helps businesses understand and manage their online payments. Integrated with multiple global payment processors, Control delivers real-time payment analytics, customer intelligence and fraud tools to any device.

• Moneytree: helps customers instantly answer the question: where, when and how am I spending, saving and investing my money.

• Rainbird: uses artificial intelligence to help businesses capture human expertise in software. This helps scale knowledge within a company through virtual, smart tools.

• VATBox: maximizes visibility, governance & VAT recovery by providing CFOs & corporate tax executives better visibility into their global VAT expenses

Launched in 2014, MasterCard Start Path is a global effort to support innovative early-stage start-ups developing the next generation of commerce solutions. This year, the initial class of early-stage start-ups, selected from more than 200 applicants are using big data, mobile and cloud-based applications to build digital relationships, empower consumers and simplify complicated tasks.

Hailing from all corners of the globe, they are also diverse in terms of team size, the, ,level of funding, revenue and sales pipeline, MasterCard said in a prepared statement.

“Through our local efforts to support developing fintech partners, we quickly saw the need for a more globally inclusive program that provides start-ups access to new markets without uprooting them,” said Stephane Wyper, Global Lead, MasterCard Start Path.