Chibuzo Opara, Co-founder, and CEO of Drugstoc, an innovative startup that leverages technology, supply chain management, financial solutions, and product knowledge to enhance access to health care in emerging markets, was crowned winner of the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA) edition of the Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI) – a global open innovation program and competition for start-ups and fintech companies. 

Having taken the $20,000 USD 1st place prize, Chibuzo Opara will now compete against the other Visa Everywhere Initiative regional champions from North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific at the VEI Global Finals, which will take place on September 19th at TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference in San Francisco.

“Fintechs and payments innovators are shaping the future of how we make payments as consumers and as businesses,” said Otto Williams, Senior Vice President and Head of Product, Partnership and Digital Solutions at Visa CEMEA. We are proud to offer them a platform to showcase their impactful solutions that can uplift the world of payments and commerce. We’ve seen some impressive projects at this year’s competition – congratulations to Chibuzo Opara for winning and to all our participants. We wish Drugstoc the best of luck for the VEI Global Finals.”

This 2023 edition of VEI introduced a new Risk prize, with an expanded remit that includes start-ups offering finance value-adds for merchants and consumers.

• Risk: awarded to Giorgio Patrini of Sensity with a prize of US$25,000. The Fintechs Innovating in Risk Excellence (FIIRE) award was supported by UAE-based bank Emirates NBD Group and was open to CEMEA-based fintech whose product includes a security or risk element that can revolutionize the payments landscape. Beyond a cash prize, the FIIRE winner also an opportunity to work with Emirates NBD Group, one of the Middle East’s largest banking groups in terms of assets.

Also honored at the VEI CEMEA Regional Finals was Nelson Aseka of AIfluence, who took home the Audience Favorite award of $10,000.

In addition to an equity-free cash prize for winning, Chibuzo Opara of Drugstoc will be able to showcase their solution on a global stage with TechCrunch, one of the world’s most influential start-up technology platforms, gaining valuable exposure to key fintech stakeholders across the banking, merchant, VC and government sectors.

Speaking on winning the CEMEA competition, Chibuzo Opara, Co-founder, and CEO Drugstoc said: “The competition has been a great platform to showcase our capabilities, learn, grow, and fuel our aspirations. It’s an overwhelming journey that doesn’t stop here, it only propels us to strive for more and we are looking forward to the global finals in San Francisco. I am proud of the Drugstoc team who keep pushing to make the dream of distributing and enhancing the availability of medical supplies and services a reality. We see the opportunity to collaborate with Visa through its technology, to service the Drugstoc supply chain and bringing efficiency to Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Since its launch in 2015, VEI has helped start-ups from more than 100 countries collectively raise more than US$16 billion in funding, with a growing network of nearly 12,000 start-ups.

Facts about the Visa Everywhere Initiative

• Visa Everywhere Initiative is an open innovation program that helps start-ups unlock new opportunities and gives them a global platform to demonstrate their ground-breaking solutions.
• The program first launched in the US in 2015, and quickly expanded into a global program. To date, nearly 12,000 start-ups have participated, and have collectively raised more than $16 billion in funding so far.
• The Visa Everywhere Initiative is open to all start-ups who offer innovative solutions to the payments and commerce challenges of tomorrow. It also helps support start-ups and fintech in two ways:  As a competition, it gives them a global stage to pitch their solutions to a panel of payments experts, win prizes and gain wider attention in the sector. As a program, it plugs start-ups into our global network of partners.
• This network is accessible to our Visa teams from all over the world when looking for solutions.

Applications are now open in Nigeria for the 2023 edition of the Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI), a global open innovation competition that sees startups pitch their innovative solutions to solve tomorrow’s payment and commerce challenges. 

In addition to monetary prizes, VEI winners gain access and exposure to Visa’s vast networks of partners in the banking, merchant, VC, and government sectors. The winners also benefit from receiving recognition from one of the world’s most trusted and valuable brands. 

The Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) finals will be livestreamed on July 27 on TechCrunch – a leading online publisher focused on the tech industry and the startup ecosystem. The startup that wins at the CEMEA Regionals will participate in the global finale, which will be held on September 19 at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco. 

This year, Visa’s VEI CEMEA is set to introduce for the first time an award in the Risk and Security domain – Fintechs Innovating in Risk Excellence, or ‘FIIRE’, Award. Through this Special Edition, Visa in partnership with Emirates NBD are scouting for global Fintech players across fraud management, cybersecurity, and credit risk, among others. Following a joint review by Visa and Emirates NBD representatives, the winning Fintech will receive a $25,000 prize and an opportunity to work with Emirates NBD, a leading bank in the region.

“The Visa Everywhere Initiative is a platform that empowers fintechs and entrepreneurs to showcase the most ground-breaking, impactful solutions in the world of payments and commerce,” said Andrew Uaboi, Vice President, and Head of Visa West Africa.

“Through their technology-driven, innovative solutions, fintechs have the potential to offer broad social benefits to the markets they operate in – particularly when it comes to providing financial services to those who have traditionally been underserved. At Visa, we believe access to the digital economy drives equitable, inclusive growth, and VEI is an important means of supporting the innovators playing a leading role in this space.”

Since its launch in 2015, VEI has helped startups representing more than 100 countries collectively raise more than $16 billion USD in funding, with a network that includes nearly 12,000 startups from across the globe.

Last year, VEI awarded more than $530,000 USD in prize money over the course of the competition, which saw over 4,000 startups participate from five regions. VEI 2022 saw Nigeria’s ThriveAgric take home the VEI Global grand prize of $100,000 USD. ThriveAgric also won the $20,000 USD Visa Direct prize. 

VEI is seeking innovative and ambitious entrepreneurs who are uplifting communities by solving payment and commerce challenges faced by businesses of all sizes and sectors, including:

Eligibility

Enablers of digital services and digital issuers

• Blockchain and cryptocurrency
• Crowdfunding
• Banking-as-a-Service
• BIN sponsors
• Issuer/processors
• Program managers

Digital issuance

• Blockchain and cryptocurrency
• Alternative lending
• Personal financial management
• Money transfer and remittance
• Digital banking (aka neo banks)
• Digital wallets, peer-to-peer (P2P) and transfers
• Employee benefits
• Payables
• Corporate cards (aka expense management)

Value-add for merchants and/or consumers in the finance space

• Data and analytics
• ID, authentication and security
• InsurTech
• Loyalty
• Merchant services and tools
• Process and payment infrastructure
• Retail technology
• Other

Small- and medium-sized business recovery

• Money movement (disbursements, Intra-account, P2P vendor and payments)
• Acceptance (e-commerce and mobile acceptance)
• Risk management (chargebacks, etc.)
• Brand management (Community building, etc.)
• Other

New categories for 2023:

• Sustainable fintechs
• Risk 
• Urban mobility 

This year’s prizes 

• VEI CEMEA Regionals 1^st place: $20,000 
• VEI CEMEA Regionals Audience Favorites: $10,000
• VEI CEMEA Regionals Risk Winner: $25,000

For more information about VEI, please visit the website.  

Winners of the Visa Everywhere Initiative will be awarded monetary prizes and the opportunity to partner with a global, trusted brand like Visa.

This year’s program has expanded to include startups that are using cryptocurrency and Visa Direct, a payment solution that can help businesses move money to billions of endpoints worldwide via card and account rails, in innovative ways.

Finalists from across the world that are driving economic growth will converge in Qatar this November for the Visa Everywhere Initiative finals.

“Fintechs and other payments innovators are transforming the way consumers and businesses make payments, making it easier for more people to access the money they need when they need it – and the pandemic has seen this become more critical than ever,” said Kemi Okusanya, Vice President, Visa West Africa.

“Competing on a global stage alongside some of the most prestigious startups in the world and, more importantly, being able to receive that global exposure and support from a trusted brand like Visa was an exceptional achievement for PAYZE,” said Giorgi Tsurtsumia, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of PAYZE as well as 2021 VEI CEMEA Winner. PAYZE is an e-commerce-oriented fintech that enables businesses across CIS countries to accept payments from around the world through a single integration. With the support of Visa’s network and a cash prize of $25,000, the PAYZE team is busy fulfilling their vision, having processed more than 250,000 transactions across 2021.

The competition also saw Karachi-based fintech, Safepay, win the CEMEA Audience Favorite award and $10,000 in prize money. Safepay specializes in secure payment processing for e-commerce stores and helps merchants increase checkout conversions, expedite receivables, and streamline sales by allowing their customers to pay online.

The Visa Everywhere Initiative network includes 8,500 startups from around the world, which continues to grow every year.

Since its launch in 2015, the program has helped startups from over 100 countries collectively raise more than $2.5 billion in funding, addressing one of the biggest challenges faced by early-stage entrepreneurs. Every year, the scope of VEI is expanded to engage with unique startups and solve unique problems in the world of payments.

This year, the program will have a clear focus on Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMEA), a region with tremendous opportunity for fintechs that are developing innovative products and solutions aimed at supporting the community. The latest edition of VEI sees two new editions in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as the global finale in Qatar in November 2022.

Visa Everywhere Initiative is seeking innovative and ambitious entrepreneurs who are uplifting communities by solving payment and commerce challenges faced by businesses of all sizes and sectors, including:

Enablers of digital services and digital issuers

• Blockchain and cryptocurrency
• Crowdfunding
• Banking-as-a-Service
• BIN sponsors
• Issuer/processors
• Program managers

Digital issuance

• Blockchain and cryptocurrency
• Alternative lending
• Personal financial management
• Money transfer and remittance
• Digital banking (aka neo banks)
• Digital wallets, peer-to-peer (P2P) and transfers
• Employee benefits
• Payables
• Corporate cards (aka expense management)

Value-add for merchants and/or consumers in the finance space

• Data and analytics
• ID, authentication and security
• InsurTech
• Loyalty
• Merchant services and tools
• Process and payment infrastructure
• Retail technology
• Other

Small- and medium-sized businesses

• Money movement (disbursements, Intra-account, P2P vendor and payments)
• Acceptance (e-commerce and mobile acceptance)
• Risk management (chargebacks, etc.)
• Brand management (Community building, etc.)
• Other

How to Apply for Visa Everywhere Initiative 2022

Visa does not acquire any equity from Visa Everywhere Initiative competitors as part of this competition.

More information and application details are available here.