Visa, the global leader in digital payments, recently announced the five startups selected for its latest Accelerator Program in Asia Pacific for 2024 to build Gen AI and embedded finance solutions. From a pool of more than 300 applicants, Bangladesh’s iFarmer joins the program with only 4 other selected startups from Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam.
Over the course of six months, iFarmer, along with the other startups (iPiD, On-us, Opplane and Quqo), will have the unique opportunity to receive bespoke training from Visa’s suite of product architects to co-develop, test, and iterate new solutions fit for technical integration to fast-track commercialization, reads a press release.
The program will culminate with a Demo Day. Additionally, one selected startup from this year’s cohort will showcase their innovative solution at the Visa Everywhere Initiative, an open innovation program hosted by TechCrunch at Disrupt in San Francisco.
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Sabbir Ahmed, Country Manager, Visa Bhutan, Nepal & Bangladesh, said, “The Visa Accelerator Program acts as a bridge between innovation and impact. The program empowers visionary startups like iFarmer to propel towards a future where technological advancement meets financial inclusion. We hope to continue supporting startups in Bangladesh to unlock their growth potential and sales across the Asia Pacific region.”
Fahad Ifaz, co-founder and chief executive officer of iFarmer, said, “With our focus on agriculture, we take a systemic view of the challenges of today and the future. Our insight into interconnectivity informs our design and delivery of market-relevant solutions, improving the lives of the farmers and other actors in the agriculture value chain. Our solution related to payment facilities aligns with the Visa Accelerator Program’s aim to expand financial access and enables us to help underserved populations in Bangladesh.”
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Founded in 2019, iFarmer is a tech and data-driven startup that helps farmers maximize their profit potential with access to finance, advisory, and direct-to-farm commerce. iFarmer also enables financial institutions and individuals to invest in agriculture projects, helps agriculture input companies with their last-mile distribution, and supplies high-quality agriculture products to processing companies and the export market.
This year’s selected startups are all tackling cutting-edge solutions in artificial intelligence (AI)/generative AI, embedded finance, global money movement, digital acceptance and loyalty of the future. So far, the Visa Accelerator Program has helped many startups realize their growth potential and brought use cases to life.
