says so Bill Gajda, Senior Vice President of Innovation and Strategic Partners for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at 'Visa In an interview during the Money 20/20 conference where the company held an innovation competition in which many of the participating startups, as well as two of the three winners, were Israeli
"Visa realized that it needed to work with the most innovative companies and therefore opened its APIs at the disposal of technology companies." Says Bill Gajda, senior vice president of innovation and strategic partners for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Visa, in an interview that took place during the recently closed Money 20/20 conference in Copenhagen.
One of the highlights of the conference was the final stage and the announcement of the winners of the Visa's Everywhere innovation competition, which was designed to connect Visa with startups around the world. This year the program was also expanded to Europe (including Israel) and included challenges in three categories: the local community challenge, the intercity transportation challenge and the travel abroad challenge. Over 190 companies submitted bids from over 19 countries, with 89 of the bids coming from Israel. 15 companies advanced to the final stage, more than half of them Israeli.
More importantly, the Israeli companies FlyMoney and BiteMojo were the winners in the categories of the travel abroad challenge and the local community challenge and won €25,000 each.
What technologies are developed by startups that interest you Visa?
Gajda: "We are interested in technologies in several important areas - first of all, information security, the Internet of Things and Blockchain, and also how machines can communicate with each other for trading purposes. This is a wide variety of fintech solutions that we are looking for. In places like Tel Aviv, Berlin and London there are many companies that work in these fields."
What is the strength of the fintech community in Israel in particular?
"There are examples of many technologies in which Israel is strong. Of course, when it comes to security, Israel is starting to become a world leader in the field of biometrics and now a vibrant Bitcoin community is also forming there. In general, there are many good fintech companies in Israel that we want to work with and accelerate their development."
What is the reason for opening theAPIs?
"We have seen that for 60 years Visa has been successful thanks to direct communication with the banks and granting franchises to the 'traditional customers.' In recent times, we see commerce developing from entities that are not banks and they cannot be Visa members or its franchisees. Big players Small players like many of the Israeli startups are introducing new technologies, and completely new user experiences, and we realized that we need to open the Visa network and work better with the big and small partners. When we asked to work with them, one of the first things they asked was where is the API? "
"Now the environment is becoming open. We realized 3-4 years ago that we need to take the Visa network, add a dimension of innovation to it to allow developers to access it and the way to do this is through APIs, a development environment ("sandbox"), good documentation and reference design. Initially we allowed our developers in places like Israel to use them. Now we have released the first APIs, a "sandbox" environment and of course the necessary support that will allow fintech companies to work the way they are used to working - rapid prototyping, OPEN DESIGN, and APIs."
What do you think about the competition between fintech companies that want to help the financial companies move forward into the digital world and fintech companies that actually want to replace the original banks and financial entities?
"At the time, there was an early enthusiasm for Bitcoin and the ability of the blockchain. People were sure that it would replace the existing system and consumers would use it massively. It did not happen. Bitcoin has not become, despite all efforts, a regular currency that can be trusted. Its use is complicated, its rates are very volatile, its regulatory status also changes from market to market. It is really intended for sophisticated users. However, blockchain in the second and third generations has become an enabler of business-to-business banking. There is a lot of potential in this area, we see blockchain as a complementary technology to the regular financial system, not a competitor to it."
"When I started my current position about five years ago, there were claims by the cellular service operators that they would replace the credit companies thanks to the technology of the devices and the relationship with the customers, but this did not happen. Most of the startups I spoke with understand that they need to work together with Visa thanks to the ecosystem it has built, and I don't mean only the technology but also the 26 thousand banks, the 50 million merchants and the 3 billion card-holding consumers. This is difficult to replicate, and on the other hand, startup companies should take advantage to reach a large scale. Even the big players entered the ecosystem and they work with Visa, and thanks to it they reached such a huge mass of payment capacity. It will always be the "next technology" that may surprise us and therefore we fear the 'next thing'. At the same time, most of the companies I talk to see the value in being part of the Visa ecosystem."
In order to contact Visa's innovation division in Israel, click HERE.
