isa named Novo the winner of the 2019 Visa Everywhere Initiative. The competition dares startups across the U.S. to find innovative solutions to modern financial challenges. Tyler McIntyre, our CTO and Co-Founder, took home the prestigious award for us across two categories.
What Is the Goal of the Visa Everywhere Initiative?
VEI launched in the U.S. in 2015 with more than 6000+ participating startups. These businesses have collectively raised over $2.5 billion in funding. As Visa's premier global program for innovation, VEI monitors talent across six continents in over 75 countries. Visa's competition examines companies addressing the most critical business challenges in today's market. "The Visa Everywhere Initiative allows us to collaborate with innovative startups like Novo, and provide our clients with fresh approaches and ideas for solving business challenges," said Alison Rezai, Vice President Technology & Innovation Marketing of Visa. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVdJgL5k_gg[/embed] We were named as both the Overall Winner and Challenge 1 Winner of the Visa contest. The competition included 561 talented startups with cutting-edge technologies. These ranged from the latest in facial recognition to workflow automation, service management, and more.
What Does the VEI Win Mean for Novo?
For Novo, the Visa awards win shows that we're on the right track to building the best banking platform for small businesses. In his pitch to Visa, Tyler discussed the pain points that business banking faces today:
Decade-old banking models just don't cut it for small businesses looking to grow. 80% of small businesses still operate in checks, which take 3-5 days to settle in an increasingly fast-paced commerce environment. We're creating a platform that amplifies and optimizes business growth for veterans and newcomers alike.
That's the banking side of our product, but the award honors more than that.
What Small Business Banking Tools Does Novo Include?
The average business owner uses roughly seven different tools to analyze the financial state of their small biz. Additionally, U.S. banks still don't have mobile applications for their small business checking accounts. The banks that do offer apps leave something to be desired. These apps have limited features that don’t provide founders the functionality they need to run their business on the go.
Novo is striving to develop an ecosystem that makes life easier for business owners juggling with different banking apps. Our platform eases this burden by providing integrations with top financial services tools. Such tools include accounting software Xero and Zapier, linking you with external bank accounts and other apps. These tools help entrepreneurs get a clearer picture of the financial health of their businesses. It is this innovative approach to improving small business banking that earned us the Visa recognition. "Novo was chosen as this year's U.S. edition winner out of a very competitive pool of startups and we look forward to working with them as they pave the way for a new model of digital banking for SMBs," Alison added.
The Takeaway
Winning the Visa Everywhere Initiative competition has shown us that small business banking for your startup is now more than just a dream. And Novo's commitment to helping underdogs and dreamers materialize their vision is what keeps us motivated and growing. That's why you should apply for Novo today!
