Visa’s open innovation program, Everywhere Initiative, launches in Sub Saharan Africa

Visa’s Everywhere Initiative has launched for the first time in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The global open innovation program taps into startup communities to drive regional business objectives, curate the startup ecosystem for Visa clients and accelerate bigger and bolder ideas.

The innovation program offers companies that can help solve any of Visa’s three challenges up to US$50,000 (a US$25,000 prize and potentially up to US$25,000 in pilot funding), and an opportunity to work with Visa or partnership with Visa’s partners.

The first challenge tasks participants to leverage Visa Developer APIs to either enable smaller merchants to accept payments in-store digitally or provide a safe and secure solution for online merchants to drive e-commerce and reduce cash on delivery.

In the second challenge, participants will use Visa’s APIs to leverage mass reach partner platforms like Facebook to help businesses operating in fast-paced consumer-centric environments improve cash flow and receive payments.

Participants attempting the third challenge are expected to augment their products with voice, messaging and artificial intelligence solutions to drive more powerful financial management or commerce experiences.

If you’re interested, you can submit your proposal here on or before May 18.