Mastercard invests in fintech Verestro
Warsaw, 6th July 2020 – Mastercard announced its investment in the Polish fintech company Verestro SA (formerly uPaid LLC). The company, with headquarters in Warsaw and offices in Sofia..., New York and Sao Paulo, has been providing payment solutions to banks, merchants and payment providers on four continents for 10 years. Today’s news extends Mastercard’s support of the dynamic fintech industry and solutions that help customers optimize payments technologies.
Verestro specializes in the development, integration and management of APIs for banks and fintech partners, incl.: NFC, HCE, QR and person-to-person payments, loyalty solutions, virtual cards or card and expense management. The company’s solutions are already present in more than 20 markets, and 85% of its revenues are generated from activities in foreign markets, such as Central and Eastern Europe, The Balkans, The Middle East, USA and South-East Asia.
Mastercard has been cooperating with Verestro since 2011. Verestro is a longtime partner to Mastercard Engage program. In addition to the investment, Mastercard will also support the relationship through introductions and access to financial and retail partners around the world. This will help Verestro scale its operations on foreign markets much faster.
“Poland is an advanced market when it comes to the development of cashless payments. This makes our country an excellent candidate for the regional fintech hub, where promising payment companies develop, with the potential for international growth. At Mastercard, we strongly believe in this success, which is why we support companies such as Polish Payment Standard, operator of BLIK, or Verestro. In recent years I have had the opportunity to observe Verestro’s development up close. I am convinced that there are more spectacular business projects ahead of this venture. I am glad that we can contribute to its further, international growth" – says Bartosz Ciołkowski, General Manager for Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia at Mastercard Europe.
“For us this is not only a great honor but also an accomplishment, for which we have worked hard for the last 5 years. We owe a lot to Mastercard: our first business project, world-class technology and global presence that allows us to establish partnerships being based in Sao Paulo, Warsaw and Singapore” – says Krzysztof Drzyzga, CEO of Verestro. “The recent renaming is a part of our company’s development. ‘Verestro’ (Epo: vere estro; ‘true leader’) comes from Esperanto, the world’s most widely spoken international auxiliary language, created by a Pole, Ludwik Zamenhof. This name fits perfectly with our thinking about the roots and the future of our company – we are a leader deriving from Poland that provides solutions working all over the world” – adds Drzyzga.
“By investing in the then uPaid and getting personally involved in the company, I expected its international development and investment from a significant financial sector player. Now, we have a strong organic growth in 20 more countries around the world and we are planning IPOs in a foreign market within a year” – said Cezary Smorszczewski, investor and the head of Verestro’s supervisory board.
“Outside Europe, we are strongly committed to acquiring new customers in the USA, South America and South-East Asia. We have already started projects there and we have a very good reputation. All this makes us look into new locations for our operation; as we want to be closer to our clients and partners we are planning offices in Dubai and Singapore” – adds Tomasz Kupka, the Head of Sales at Verestro.
Mastercard is a partner of choice for fintechs and only in Poland the company has engaged in cooperation with such companies as BLIK, ZEN, Twisto, Aion, DiPocket or Trevica (currently Mastercard Payment Transaction Services). Mastercard is also one of the founders of The Heart, a business cooperation platform based in Warsaw, which helps startups establish partnerships with corporations. Within The Heart Ventures startups are built “from scratch”, in response to the demand of the big players. Within Accelerate platform, Mastercard gives fintechs the opportunity to obtain financing, use their product licenses or establish contacts with trusted technology partners.
expand
