Visa, a global leader in digital payments, announces the selection of seven fintechs in Greece, Cyprus, and Malta for the new 2026 cycle of the Visa Innovation Program Europe.
The strong momentum of the fintech ecosystem is reflected in this year’s interest in the programme, with applications for Greece, Cyprus, and Malta recording some 50% increase year‑on‑year. Following a highly competitive selection process, seven startups were ultimately selected to participate: AgriNow, Better, Cloudigo, Paytic, GYST, Outfindo και Peanuds
Now in its 8th cycle, the Visa Innovation Program Europe is designed to support the growth of fintech companies, enhance digital payment solutions, and accelerate innovation across financial services, while simultaneously integrating emerging innovations into the Visa network, with a strong focus on artificial intelligence and agentic commerce.
Through the program, the selected startups will collaborate with Visa’s extensive network of partners, mentors, investors, and clients, gaining access to leading organizations that enable them to test, validate, and accelerate their innovative solutions under real market conditions. Each cycle of the program is built around key industry pillars that address the most important challenges and opportunities in the financial services and payments industry.
In Greece, Cyprus, and Malta, the program is implemented in collaboration with Eleven Ventures and Endeavor Greece.
For 2026, the Visa Innovation Program Europe focuses on three thematic pillars:
- Artificial Intelligence and agentic commerce (commerce via digital assistants)
- Β2Β solutions and money movement
- Open Finance and data
Through these thematic areas, the program identified fintech companies with the capability to deliver scalable, forward‑looking solutions and contribute to shaping the future of financial services.
Sevi Vassileva, General Manager of Visa for Greece, Cyprus, Malta, and Israel, stated: “Innovation remains a key driver in the evolution of payments. In the eighth cycle of the Visa Innovation Program Europe, we are welcoming for the first time seven dynamic fintechs, which bring fresh solutions and ideas, capable of transforming the financial sector. We encourage participants to fully leverage the guidance of mentors and the opportunities provided by Visa’s partner network and we look forward to seeing how these innovative solutions will contribute to shaping the future of financial services.”
Daniel Tomov, Founding partner at Eleven Ventures, stated: “We’re entering the 2026 season of the Visa Innovation Program Europe with incredible momentum, marking a decisive shift toward an era of intelligent, autonomous finance. We’re especially energized by the surge of talent emerging from Greece, Cyprus, and Malta — ecosystems that have rapidly matured into high-octane hubs for AI-driven commerce.
The caliber of fintech innovation coming from the region is stronger than ever, with startups building globally competitive solutions across payments, AI, embedded finance, compliance, and digital infrastructure. By connecting this local ingenuity with Visa’s partner network, we are accelerating the transition from traditional payments to seamless, borderless value exchange across Europe. We’re proud to support this new generation of builders and help unlock the scale, connectivity, and opportunity enabled by Visa’s global networκ.”
Panagiotis Karampinis, Regional Managing Director, Endeavor Europe, stated: “At Endeavor, we believe that ecosystems grow when ambitious founders are connected to the right networks, knowledge, and market opportunities. The Visa Innovation Program Europe does exactly that, by giving high-impact fintech companies across Greece, Cyprus, and Malta access to leading partners, real market validation, and the support needed to scale. This year’s selected companies show the strength and maturity of the regional fintech ecosystem, especially in areas such as AI, agentic commerce, B2B payments, and open finance. We are proud to support the 8th cycle of the program together with Visa and Eleven Ventures, helping founders turn innovative solutions into meaningful market impact.”
The fintech selected for the 2026 edition of the Visa Innovation Program Europe for Greece, Cyprus, and Malta are the following:
- AgriNow (Greece) – AgriNow is an AI‑powered workforce management platform that digitizes agricultural labor hiring, enabling farmers to source verified workers, manage contracts and compliance, and pay wages legally, transparently, and on time — including for cross‑border labor.
- Better (Israel): Converts declined online payments into guaranteed real-time revenue, for PSPs and merchants by securing and retrying transactions at the optimal moment—seamlessly and without disrupting the customer experience.
- Cloudigo (Malta): Connects savings, rewards, and employee benefits to turn everyday spending into smarter value for consumers, merchants, and employers.
- Paytic (Canada): Paytic is an AI-powered back-office platform for payments, designed to improve how operations are built, run, and managed across banks, fintechs, processors, and enterprise merchants
- GYST (USA): Provides an agentic AI infrastructure that enables creators to turn audience demand into immediate commercial opportunities at the speed of AI, automating end-to-end sales execution, helping creators become Visa-powered merchants.
- Outfindo (Czech Republic): helps retailers reduce choice paralysis in complex e‑commerce by transforming technical product data into human‑ and AI‑friendly insights, making products easier to discover, compare, and recommend in both human‑led and agentic commerce experiences.
- Peanuds (Cyprus): Peanuds builds modular software for card‑ and account‑based financial products, enabling business banks and fintechs to launch their own programmes via one platform instead of managing multiple vendors across the EEA.
Visa Innovation Program Europe in numbers
Since its launch in 2019, the Visa Innovation Program Europe, which is implemented across 15 countries, has received more than 1,900 applications, with approximately 250 fintechs reaching the final evaluation stage. Of these, more than 150 companies have been selected to participate in the program, benefiting from over 1,500 hours of mentorship and more than 750 introductions to Visa partners. To date, more than 110 successful collaborations have been established between program participants and the broader Visa ecosystem.
Timeline
The program will run through November 2026, culminating in the Visa Innovation Program Europe Summit, where participating companies will have the opportunity to showcase their progress to market leaders, Visa executives, program alumni, and members of the broader fintech ecosystem. For more information, please visit the program’s website: https://visainnovationprogram.com/.
