A Louisville fintech startup is getting attention from a multi-billion dollar company thanks to a worldwide competition.
Borderless has been selected as one of five North American finalists for the Visa Everywhere Initiative. The program, which functions like a pitch event, offers startups a global platform to demonstrate their solutions, according to its website. To date, nearly 8,500 startups have participated, and have collectively raised more than $16 billion in funding.
The winner of the North American region will be selected during a live event broadcast via Techcrunch in June. Then, the North American winner will go on to compete in the global finals, which will be held in Qatar in November.
Raffi Kayat, CEO and founder of borderless, said this is a big deal not just for his company, but for the region too.
"If you're one of the five, you're essentially a winner because you get to work with Visa, even if you're not selected to go onto the global finals," he said. "It's a great opportunity for us that's really going to expand our capabilities and open doors to new partnerships. Obviously Visa is a huge company, so we're really excited.
"We want to put Kentuckiana on the fintech map."
When selecting the finalists, Visa looks for startups that have ideas relevant to its business and clients, a product in market, proof of traction and funding from external investors.
There are multiple ways that borderless can work with Visa, Kayat said. The company, which was named a Startup to Watch in 2022, offers a global payment solution that aims to make business payments simple, transparent and affordable in more than 120 countries in local currencies.
"Currently, we deliver payments to bank accounts around the world," Kayat said. "One of the things that we can leverage is Visa Direct, which allows you to send and receive funds instantly, but also directly with Visa cards. It really opens the door for us to the unbanked in emerging markets, which is great."
With its team of six, borderless has been doubling and at times, quadrupling its transaction growth on a month to month basis, processing thousands of payments and millions of dollars a day. Kayat declined to disclose revenue.
The company also recently landed a deal with Gopuff, which hit a $15 billion valuation last July after landing $1 billion in fresh capital. Gopuff expanded into England and France over the last year by acquiring local delivery platforms Fancy and Dija, respectively. Now borderless is helping the delivery company pay its drivers in the UK.
Kayat sees opportunity in the influencer and gig economies, noting that there's a pain point for companies looking to pay creators and freelancers world wide.
"Companies need one centralized solution that has a global reach and can deliver payments in real time. That's where borderless comes in," he said.
