Mastercard Selects Five Global Startups to Push Blockchain Innovation in Payments

Mastercard, a leading payments services corporation, continues to expand its engagement with Web3 technologies by onboarding five new startups to its Start Path program. The initiative, focused on fostering innovation, aims to explore the potential of blockchain for developing scalable payment solutions within the global digital commerce landscape.

“Today, Mastercard is introducing five startups from around the world to its Start Path Blockchain and Digital Assets program to drive best-in-class user experiences and expand use cases that demonstrate the power of blockchain technology,” a press release states.

The newly selected startups hail from various regions and bring diverse areas of expertise to the program. France’s Kulipa provides solutions for crypto payments integrated with digital wallets. Parfin, based in the UK, assists businesses in adopting blockchain infrastructure, while Singapore’s peaq offers borderless digital tools for real-world applications involving vehicles, machines, and connected devices.

“Parfin merges traditional finance (TradFi) with decentralized finance (DeFi) expertise, fostering a unified finance (UniFi) approach for more efficient, transparent, and inclusive markets. We eagerly anticipate how Mastercard Start Path can help accelerate our advancement in blockchain innovation,” Marcos Viriato, CEO and co-founder of Parfin, said.

“We are thrilled to join Mastercard Start Path, which opens up an exciting array of prospective bridges between decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), which peaq was built to power, and traditional finance,” Till Wendler, co-founder of peaq, noted.

“Through Mastercard Start Path, we’re looking to uncover new ways to unlock crypto mass adoption and wider financial inclusion with convenient, global stablecoin payments,” said Kulipa founder Axel Cateland.

Rounding out the new cohort are Venly (Belgium), which streamlines blockchain integration for companies, and Triangle (U.S.), a firm that leverages blockchain technology to combine climate data with financial solutions.

Interestingly, Mastercard sees digital assets playing an increasingly prominent role in the future of commerce, citing potential benefits such as faster transactions and enhanced transparency in tracking financial activities. The company anticipates mainstream adoption of digital assets in the coming years.

Launched in 2014, Start Path boasts a history of collaboration with over 400 startups from more than 54 countries. Mastercard positions Start Path as a platform for fostering innovation through a collaborative approach. The four-month virtual program offers high-potential startups in the blockchain, digital assets, and Web3 spaces opportunities for collaboration, tailored training, and access to Mastercard’s extensive network of customers and channels.

Mastercard has actively explored the potential of Web3 for several years. Recent initiatives include partnering with 1inch, a decentralized exchange aggregator (DEX), to launch crypto debit cards in April 2024 and establishing a CBDC partner program to facilitate discussions around digital currencies.

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