Almost a week ago, Visa Europe
(NYSE:V), made to headlines that it has been in talks with
Visa to formally reacquire it with a deal worth $15-20 billion. Visa Europe had
also made to other headlines by announcing that it is also opening its
innovation hub, which it announced simultaneously during the earnings
results release, but did not receive much attention among many news channels.
The innovation hub is
promised by financial payment company to help startups build new and updated payment related
technologies with the best model to be rolled out to member banks, retailers,
and consumers.
The hub, named Visa
Europe Collab, aims to take 20 ideas in its first year of
operation through a 100-day "innovation funnel”, which involves from
initial scooping to qualification, all the way to market testing and proof
of design. Only one of the best concepts will win, and will be handed to the
main body of Visa Incisor that it could be commercially rolled out into
operations.
The innovation hub will
be based initially in London, but will be expanded over time to include
other hotspots, including Paris, Berlin, even Tel Aviv. Partners include
schools, such as CASS Business School, and accelerators, such as Digital
Catapult.
Steve Perry, founder and
co-creator of Visa Europe Collab, who was the
genius behind the idea, said that it is not about simply acquiring startups or purchasing stakes, rather than try to
start from the ground up. It is also about giving opportunities to many
innovation companies in Europe, which lack services, such as mentoring,
financing, and spending on R&D for the many likeminded individuals.
In fact, Visa Europe is
doing itself, as well as the EU governments, a favor by providing the ‘glue’
that brings together innovators, banks, mobile cellular operators, e
commerce companies, and most importantly, governments, to grow
entrepreneurial ecosystem, and in turn, develop jobs. This also helps improve
and deliver the latest payment systems, which will not only benefit the
European countries, but around the world.
In a separate news, Visa
Inc., under the guidance of Min Wang, a former senior scientist and researcher
at Google, HP Labs China, and the IBM Watson Research
Center, will help the company’s tech research capabilities, to focus on
areas, such as applied research, and bring together many academics and ‘think
thanks’ along with the government into one fold to create new technologies
related to the improvement of the online payments system. This will
complement the innovation hub, except that it will focus on the commercial
aspect, whereas the separate one run by Mr. Wang will focus on the security and
government policy aspect.
No comments:
Post a Comment