Visa chooses NZ startup for APAC Accelerator Programme
Visa has selected New Zealand payments startup Cymonz for the 2022 cohort of its Visa Accelerator Programme in Asia Pacific.
Cymonz will work closely with Visa over the next six months to create defined commercial opportunities it can bring to Visa's extensive network of bank, merchant, government and venture partners.
In addition, the company will join a select group of five elite startups from across the region.
Cymonz is an international payments and currency exchange platform with a goal to streamline and grow money movement for banks, money service businesses and fintechs.
The company says through Visa's programme, it intends to develop an end-to-end payments-as-a-service platform to assist banks and financial service organisations with currency exchange and international payments solutions.
"The team at Cymonz is very excited to be working alongside the experienced team at Visa, integrating our platform with the innovative and cost-effective Visa payment rails," Cymonz founder and CEO Simon Lynch says.
"The partnership will provide a highly configurable, simple to launch international payments-as-a-service platform enabling banks and financial institutions to easily stand up or upgrade their international payments offering."
Acknowledging the increase in digital technology migration brought on by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the companies note that the 2022 cohort will take on some of the most pressing financial and technological challenges that have come about in recent years.
The four other companies located across the Asia Pacific region that will join Cymonz in the programme include:
Moneytree: a financial data aggregation platform based in Japan.
Perfios: an India-based fintech that specialises in data aggregation and analytics
TallyKhata: a leading digital payments platform for small and micro-businesses in Bangladesh.
TripleA: a Singaporean startup that offers white-label cryptocurrency solutions.
"Businesses in a rapidly shifting and global environment need to be able to pay and get paid quickly, efficiently and securely, yet cross-border payments remain complex and difficult for many here in New Zealand and around the world," Visa New Zealand and South Pacific country manager Anthony Watson says.
"We're excited to collaborate with a local fintech tackling these challenges head-on and to help drive innovation in the global money movement space.
"Through the Accelerator Programme, Visa supports the startup community by giving them a leg up in one of their key challenges, which is expanding their footprint beyond their home market and into the region."
Visa introduced its Accelerator Programme in the APAC region in December 2020 and explains that it is designed for startups that have launched successful solutions in their home markets and are looking toward their next stage of growth.
Furthermore, Visa says the programme is ideal for growth-stage fintechs that are Series A and above and have a long-term commitment to APAC growth and existing operations in the region.
"Globally, nearly 30% more fintechs issued Visa credentials in the last year, and they nearly doubled their payments volume.
"By combining Visa's capabilities and the reach of our global network with the ingenuity of the startups, together we can create new innovative experiences at scale and bring more individuals and businesses into the digital economy," Watson adds.
