The Visa Everywhere Initiative this week announced Stronghold as the “Audience Favorite” in the 2022 competition for North American Fintech Startups.
First launched in 2015, TechCrunch hosts Visa's North America Everywhere Initiative annually. Its open innovation program allows startups to demonstrate their unique finance solutions on a national platform with opportunity for recognition from some of the nation’s most respected entities in finance. Visa shares that, since launch, nearly 8,500 startups have participated in the competition, collectively raising more than $16 billion in funding.” This year, Stronghold was selected as one of the Top 6 finalists out of nearly 1,400 applicants in North America.
Companies looking to participate in the competition start their journey as members of the Visa Everywhere Initiative Network, which Visa product teams often look to when searching for finance solutions. From this network, Visa chooses a select number of startups to assemble an official pitch for the competition.
Following a multi-round pitch, where founders had just four minutes to share their company’s most innovative finance solutions around Visa’s core pillars, Stronghold was awarded a finalist position. In a live-streamed ceremony, Stronghold was further awarded Audience Favorite for its:
- Stronghold Merchant Rewards Program
Merchants receive one point to their account for each dollar of transaction. They can choose how to redeem their points in a way that best supports their business, from rebates on processing fees to increasing the partnership fee payable from Stronghold. They can even redeem points for Stronghold’s SHx tokens.
- Stronghold Merchant Financing
Stronghold commits to helping business owners access the funding they need when they need it. Not only does Stronghold speed up the process by collecting existing merchant profile data making the approval process as short as two days, but it also models repayment with the merchant’s unique business flow. The automated repayments are in sync with sales, so on strong days, that amount is higher, and on slower days, you have some breathing room.
With recognition from one of the world’s most trusted brands and the votes and continued support from its thriving social communities on Discord (11K) and Twitter (63K+), Stronghold is grateful for the opportunity to share its initiatives on a large scale and demonstrate the ways it’s transforming the world of payments, Web3, and DeFi.
Watch Stronghold CEO and co-founder Tammy Camp present our pitch for the 2022 Visa Everywhere Initiative North America:
About Stronghold
Stronghold is a leading financial infrastructure company that provides fast, secure, and accessible financial services through a simple API. Stronghold works with businesses to make payments quicker and easier while maintaining regulatory compliance and interoperability between payment systems. Stronghold launched the highly successful digital currency SHx in 2018 to provide real time settlement, discount in fees for business customers, rewards, and merchant cash advances. SHx currently has a market capitalization of more than $1.5 billion. To learn more, visit stronghold.co.
Read more about the Visa Everywhere Initiative here.
Lena Tichy
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