Mastercard added 11 new companies to its Start Path startup engagement program for emerging fintechs. The new cohort of companies was selected during a competitive global process for their expertise in high-growth sectors, including card processing infrastructure, AI-driven credit access, treasury management, and circular commerce.
The Start Path program is designed to provide global support for startups, giving them access to Mastercard’s network of partners, customers, and in-house subject matter experts to help them scale. Since its inception in 2014, the program has welcomed over 500 startups from more than 60 countries.
A focus on circular commerce and sustainability
Timed with the start of New York Climate Action Week, the announcement highlighted several participating companies that are focused on pioneering technologies for sustainable consumption and lifecycle management. The startups in this category include:
- Save Your Wardrobe, a company providing customisable tech infrastructure that allows businesses to design and scale after-sale services beyond the initial transaction.
- Pentatonic, an AI-native, drop-in solution for brands and retailers to manage their secondhand market by automating product buybacks and routing them to resale, repair, or recycling.
- Circulae, a service that integrates automated resale functionality into payment methods, aiming to help people regain purchasing power and reduce waste.
- Circulayo, a platform focused on transforming reusable packaging systems through financial touchpoints, offering instant deposits, refunds, rewards, and environmental impact measurements.
Infrastructure, credit, and new commerce models
The rest of the cohort covers a range of other high-growth fintech sectors:
- Card Processing and Infrastructure: AraxaTech focuses on connecting issuers and processors through seamless integrations and zero-downtime migrations. Hyperlayer helps banks and businesses to develop and launch programmable financial products.
- Treasury Management and Banking: amnis provides a platform for mid-sized companies to streamline cross-border banking and financial operations. Qawn is a chat-based banking solution designed to facilitate value exchanges across the Middle East.
- AI-driven Credit: Kamina is an AI-enabled platform that helps financial institutions prevent delinquency, reward healthy financial behaviour, and expand responsible credit access.
- Agentic Commerce and Payments: firmly is an agentic commerce platform that allows customers to make purchases at the point of inspiration across various digital touchpoints. MoovnPay is building an ecosystem of platforms for moving, paying, and shopping online.
The Start Path program has a track record of supporting startups that go on to achieve significant milestones, with many alumni entering public markets, reaching unicorn status, or developing extended commercial engagements with Mastercard and its customers.
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