Mastercard Launches Accelerate to Boost Fintech’s Success in Latin America and across the world

Miami, FL | October, 31 2019

Program simplifies experience for fintechs worldwide; drives digital innovation, provides countless ways to transform lives and economies

In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), one key pillar of Accelerate –Fintech Express – will be expanded beyond Brazil’s borders to allow Mastercard to onboard fintechs in a matter of weeks and achieve long-term scalability

This week, Mastercard announced the launch of Accelerate, a global initiative that simplifies the way that Mastercard works with fintechs, giving them access to everything they need to grow quickly. Offering a simple, single entry-point to the company’s wide portfolio of specialized programs, Mastercard Accelerate gives start-ups and emerging brands support and assistance for every stage of their growth and transformation, from market entry to global expansion.

Accelerate will enable fintechs to be onboarded to Mastercard in a matter of weeks and provide a guided experience through everything the company can offer. Program participants are connected to relevant parts of the business, to integrate Mastercard’s proprietary technology, leverage its insights and cybersecurity services, engage new customers, and reach new markets and segments. In addition, Mastercard’s commitment to financial inclusion drives focused product development, helping co-create solutions that enable a more inclusive economy.

“Mastercard Accelerate is a single doorway to the countless ways Mastercard can help fintechs all over the world grow and scale sustainably,” said Michael Miebach, chief product & innovation officer, Mastercard. “Fintechs are contributing to the rapid digital transformation that makes lives more convenient, simpler, and rewarding. We’re the partner of choice for the top Fintech brands worldwide, and with Accelerate we invite the next generation of global entrepreneurs to join us.”

“And for our financial institution partners and customers, Mastercard Accelerate provides access to the next generation of innovators, with a portfolio of start-up partners and fintechs ready to co-create and collaborate on new experiences,” added Miebach.

Accelerate is comprised of a range of award-winning programs that have helped participants all over the world access and benefit from Mastercard’s ecosystem, customers and innovations: Mastercard Fintech Express, Mastercard Engage, Mastercard Start Path and Mastercard Developers. Collectively, the tools and services provided in these 4 programs include dedicated Mastercard licensing specialists to support market expansion, in-market access to account expertise to expedite growth, and unparalleled ability to connect to comprehensive processing and innovative assets. Our resources include Mastercard Advisors for in-market execution support, data insights and analytics to help guide fintechs through the process. The Accelerate solution also provides market-based resources for related strategic investing and accommodative early-stage collateral requirements.


Mastercard Accelerate – supporting fintechs, scaling businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean

One of the pillars of the program, Fintech Express, will be key moving forward in LAC. The program that has unlocked powerful levels of success for fintechs in Brazil is going to be ready for expansion in other markets across LAC. Fintech Express provides a customized set of rules, digital-first products and services designed around the unique needs of fintechs to help them grow at the speed that they, and their customers demand.

“The market opportunity for ambitious digital banking businesses and fintechs is clear and formulating a framework to expedite the engagement model is the next step for us to continue being the partner of choice for fintechs looking to grow in LAC,” said Kiki del Valle, senior vice president, LAC Digital Partnerships. “Mastercard’s success story with fintech partnerships, specifically in Brazil, is one of high collaboration and trust. In the last five years, we have proven our partnership construct delivers value with Mastercard dominating over 90% of the market share so far. We have been working with fintech associations in different markets, taking a thoughtful approach to partnerships, identifying the brightest companies with the most promising technology, and solving their challenges with digital innovation, commercial connections, or strategic investments. We are excited to replicate this same success in other markets across the region.”

Mastercard has been committed to the LAC fintech space for many years. Specifically, in the past five years, Mastercard has been the exclusive partner of choice for the largest fintechs in the region: Nubank (Brazil); C6 Bank (Brazil); BanQi from Via Varejo (Brazil); Ualá (Argentina) and albo (Mexico) to name a few.


Supporting Fintech’s Future in LAC

• Fully vested in long-term success, Nubank has been working exclusively with Mastercard since its launch in 2014, when they became the first 100% digital issuer in Brazil. “Brazil, and Latin America, are some of the most concentrated banking markets in the world. We recently reached 15MM customers in Brazil and now we are expanding to Mexico and Argentina to change the financial landscape in the region", said Vitor Olivier, vice-president of Consumers at Nubank.

Driving Financial Inclusion

• “Our mission is to bring Latin American financial services into the 21st century. Ualá offers an innovative and integrated experience, welcoming the unbanked into the financial system and offering better financial services for all. We never expected to issue more than one million cards in two years. Working alongside an agile partner that equally understands the value of financial inclusion to the development of a country has had a valuable impact in our growth,” said Andrea Arrébola, Commercial Director at Ualá.

• On a mission to provide the tools people need to access financial services and achieve a more secure financial future, Mastercard entered into a partnership with Via Varejo, one of Brazil’s major retailers, and Airfox, a Fintech incubated at Harvard University (USA). “Our success depended on finding customers with the right profile and offering them a complete digital banking solution in a manner that made sense to them. With our Mastercard partnership, we were able to find the right co-partner, with the best local expertise, to place our financial service solutions within reach of previously marginalized communities,” said Helisson Lemos of Via Varejo.

Delivering a Seamless User Experience

• Dedicated to innovating the consumer journey, C6 Bank is collaborating with Mastercard to develop products and solutions, such as fraud prevention and rewards that meet the needs, of its target audience. “Through our Mastercard partnership, we’ve been able to bring simple, and safe solutions to our clients. The fact that Mastercard was able to onboard our company in less than 60 days was an extremely valuable part of the partnership,” said Maxnaum Gutierrez, head of products at C6 Bank.

Driving Faster Speed-to-Market

• Equally important to the expansion journey is speed-to-market. Mastercard is challenging the traditional business models to speed-up the onboarding process by partnering with different processors to quickly launch new programs in the market. Examples include partnerships with C6 Bank, Nubank, and BanQi from Via Varejo, who were all fully onboarded directly onto our network in around 60 days.

• Mastercard’s Bin Sponsor agnostic model brings flexibility to fintechs as it allows them to start issuing cards in no more than 4 weeks and allows fintechs the right to choose their Bin Sponsor of choice. The first player certified to offer this service is Orbitall.

• As an alternative to direct onboarding, Mastercard is additionally building proactive, stronger relationships with processors such as CSU, DXC, Pismo, Orbitall, Conductor and Tutuka, for a certified Express Onboarding model to reduce time-to-market and ensure ongoing support for our fintech partners.

For additional information, visit http://www.mastercard.com/fintech.