Mastercard Brings Fintech on the Road to Cardiff for Its First Stop

Wales was the first stop for Mastercard Fintech on the Road, with Mastercard visiting the NatWest Accelerator in Cardiff to meet some of Wales’ start-ups and scale-ups.

Held with FinTech Wales, the event brought the Mastercard team together with founders and businesses from across the Welsh fintech ecosystem at the NatWest Accelerator in Cardiff.

FinTech Wales CEO Sarah Jones opened the event, welcoming Mastercard and attendees to Wales for the first stop of Mastercard Fintech on the Road.

Launch, grow and scale

Sam McGurk, Director of Fintech at Mastercard, opened the Mastercard sessions with a presentation focused on launching, growing and scaling fintech businesses.

Sam introduced the different ways fintech businesses can engage with Mastercard at different stages of their journey, from programmes such as Engage and Start Path through to partnership opportunities that can help businesses launch faster and scale.

One of the key messages from Mastercard throughout the event was simple: whatever stage you’re at, come and have a conversation.

BIN sponsorship unpacked

Mastercard’s Hannah Goddard and Rob Darby then turned the focus to BIN sponsorship, unpacking the topic for the fintech founders and businesses in the room.

The session formed part of the day’s wider focus on the different ways fintech businesses can work with Mastercard as they develop and grow.

Getting to market and growing faster

Semina Markou of Mastercard continued the day’s focus on fintech growth with a session looking at getting to market and growing faster.

Together, the Mastercard sessions gave attendees the opportunity to hear directly from the team about a range of topics relevant to fintech businesses at different stages of their journey.

Founder journeys from across Wales

FinTech Wales CEO Sarah Jones returned to host the founder panel, bringing together Warren Russell, Leah Farmer and Steve Jones to share their experiences of building businesses in Wales.

The three founders shared their journeys and highlighted the strengths, opportunities and support available across different regions of Wales, bringing their own experiences into the day’s wider discussion around starting and growing fintech businesses.

Connecting Welsh fintech with opportunity

Bringing Mastercard Fintech on the Road to Cardiff gave Welsh start-ups and scale-ups the opportunity to meet the Mastercard team, hear about different ways to engage with the organisation and discuss some of the challenges and opportunities involved in launching and growing a fintech business.

It also reflected what we’re here to do at FinTech Wales: connect businesses with the right people, support their growth and help create more opportunities for Welsh fintechs to succeed.

Get in touch

If you’re a fintech business interested in engaging with Mastercard, connect with Sam McGurk on LinkedIn, or email [email protected] and the FinTech Wales team will make the connection.

Thank you to Warren Russell, Leah Farmer and Steve Jones for sharing their founder journeys, and to Sam McGurk, Hannah Goddard, Rob Darby, Semina Markou and the wider Mastercard team for bringing the first stop of Mastercard Fintech on the Road to Wales.

See the full Mastercard Fintech on the Road Cardiff gallery. All photos are free to use on your social channels.