Innovations are not created in the privacy of offices

What was the decisive factor in Mastercard's involvement in The Heart?

The decision to join the project was somewhat natural for us, not only because our companies’ headquarters are only a few floors away one from another in one of the Warsaw’s skyscrapers. We recognized that The Heart would be an important initiative bringing a lot of good to the Polish start-up ecosystem and we wanted to play an active role in the initiative. First of all, at Mastercard we believe that the best environment for creating innovations are open ecosystems of cooperation involving various partners, including creative start-ups. Innovations are not created in the privacy of offices, but at the intersection of different ways of thinking and points of view. Today, startups develop the most advanced technological solutions, such as, for example, chatbots based on artificial intelligence, behavioral biometrics or data anonymization for Big Data projects. On a global scale, our company is involved in various projects supporting the ecosystem of start-ups and we are glad that in Poland The Heart has been developing fast for last three years. We are also happy to lend a helping hand in that.

What is your contribution to The Heart?

We want to share our know-how and participate in the exchange of business experience. Our experts from Poland and abroad have payment knowledge that helps start-ups to create optimal solutions for various business problems. We want to help them go beyond the local market, because scalability is the basis for their long-term success. Thanks to our global reach, we enable them to cooperate not only with our laboratories, Mastercard Labs, but also with our business partners around the world, such as banks or large merchants. We receive many signals from start-ups that they need and appreciate such support, which enables them to build their business more effectively. However, Mastercard’s contribution is not limited to know-how and partners. We also support projects implemented by The Heart financially.

What is the scope of your involvement in this initiative?

Currently, we are actively involved in work on a dozen or so projects in The Heart and we do not limit ourselves only to fintech companies. Some of these projects can positively change the operations and offering not only of our business partners, but also our own!

The Heart is a place where start-ups and corporations look for opportunities for cooperation. What do you think large companies can gain in this marriage?

It seems that in business the time of matchmakers is not over – on the contrary, now they have their moment! At Mastercard we understand that small, dynamic companies can be valuable partners for corporations. We see it best on our own example, because for years we have been moving away from developing new solutions in our own laboratories. Instead, we are looking for ways to engage start-ups, e.g. through The Heart, but also through our global Start Path and Accelerate 2.0 programs, commercial projects and direct investments. Some may say that openness to cooperation with others may pose a risk of disclosing one’s own know-how or business plans, but most of all it is a chance to go beyond the framework of one’s own organization. Such an environment is conducive to the creation of completely new, breakthrough solutions.

At the end of last year The Heart Ventures, a unique model for building startups with corporations, was created. Also thanks to Mastercard.

We decided to open this kind of a “start-up factory" with the support of Mastercard Labs, because we have seen many market needs, that can be effectively addressed by ventures that do not exist yet. We noticed a gap or market niche that start-ups can fill, but first we have to build them from scratch. This year alone, The Heart plans to launch the first five ventures with the help of Mastercard, in the areas such as insurtech, fintech and retailtech. We see this as another initiative that strengthens the role of Poland as a centre of innovation in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. So far, The Heart Ventures is the only such project in the CEE.