In celebration of International Women’s Day, Visa has announced the launch of the first Visa Everywhere Initiative: Women’s Global Edition. The global program invites women entrepreneurs from around the world to tackle FinTech and Social Impact challenges for a chance to win $100,000 in each of the two challenges.
To participate, companies with at least one female founder are invited to submit solutions that tackle challenges facing the FinTech and Social Impact landscapes today through one of the two innovative briefs. The briefs include FinTech – Leveraging their company’s unique capabilities, how could their solution help transform consumer, payments and/or commercial experiences locally, regionally or globally? And Social Impact: How can women entrepreneurs around the world drive social impact by supporting sustainable and equitable livelihoods and strengthening local/regional economies?
“More than 163 million women around the world have started their own business in the last five years, accounting for up to 37% of the workforce. Women entrepreneurship is on the rise and Visa is committed to inspiring more women to break through barriers through platforms like the Visa Everywhere Initiative,” said Lynne Biggar, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer at Visa.
Eligible participants will be divided into 6 regions: North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe (excluding France), France, Africa/Middle East. Each region will send one winner per challenge to the finals in Paris. The program will then culminate with a finals event to be held during kick-off of the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019.
Submissions for the competition open on March 6th and will close on April 14th.. Regional finalists will be selected per region in May while the Global Finals in Paris, France will be held on June 7th
Visa will reward $100,000 to each challenge winner, along with expert mentorship, access to clients and Visa’s vast network of partners. The winners will also receive tickets to the opening game of FIFA Women’s World Cup.
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