The seven startups selected as part of the 2023 program are from India, Mainland China, Thailand, Singapore and Germany and they will be working on solutions in the areas of Web 3.0, global money movement, embedded finance, merchant and small business enablers, and open banking solutions.

The startups selected for the 2023 cohort are Dowsure (Mainland China), Doxa Holdings (Singapore), Kadmos (Germany), Pi-xcels (Singapore), Playbux (Thailand), Transpure (India) and Twid (India). Over a course of six months, these startups will have the unique opportunity to collaborate with Visa's payment experts, business development teams and customers to co-develop, test and iterate their solutions, while validating them against commercial opportunities with Visa's extensive network of financial institutions, merchants and digital partners.

"The Visa Accelerator Program offers selected startups a path to rapid commercialisation," said Kunal Chatterjee, Head of Innovation, Asia Pacific, Visa. "Our collaboration with past cohorts of startups has yielded multiple commercial partnerships, joint intellectual property (IP) creation and new product developments with Visa and our clients in Asia Pacific. Success in payments requires strong collaboration and Visa is committed to partnering with and investing in startups that share our vision to build new digital commerce experiences."

The seven startups for the 2023 cohort were selected from a pool of more than 450 applicants. They are:

Dowsure (Mainland China) provides digital financing experiences for cross-border merchants on global e-Commerce platforms.
Doxa Holdings (Singapore) offers a collaborative trade platform that enables automated procure-to-pay and financing workflows for companies operating in a cross-industry ecosystem.
Kadmos (Germany) offers an end-to-end salary payments platform for migrant workers, bringing fintech, low margins, and transparent FX to traditional industries.
Pi-xcels (Singapore) digitises paper receipts instantly to provide offline retailers with real-time actionable shopper data, via a single tap.
Playbux (Thailand) provides a fully integrated Web 3.0 community platform with commerce activities, blockchain technology, NFTs, and virtual communities.
Transpure (India) provides technology to minimise friction, build seamless and cost-effective solutions for cross-border payments and remittances.
Twid (India) is a rewards-based payment network that brings together various issuers' rewards points systems to enable them as a mode of payment across merchants.

The trend of consumers continuing to embrace the convenience and security that digital commerce, banking, and payments have brought to their lifestyles is set to stay and Visa is collaborating with the selected startups to build new digital commerce experiences together.

Visa is partnering with Plug and Play, one of the world's most successful global innovation platforms for the Visa Accelerator Program 2023. Plug and Play will bring their expertise as a highly successful investor and their experience working with other major corporate accelerator programs, to identify, attract and accelerate startups who want to solve industry challenges and scale new technologies.