Deborah Barta on How Mastercard Is Scaling Up Fintech Start-Ups

Deborah Barta is vice president of innovation management and start-up engagement at Mastercard, where she leads engagement with the global start-up community through Start Path. 

The program partners with elite, later-stage start-ups from around the world, tech companies that have already completed at least one funding round. 

What do you look for in choosing companies for Start Path?

Each year, we receive approximately 2,000 applications from across the globe, and we hand-select about 40 start-ups to work closely with through the program.

Ideally, we’re looking for companies that have raised a significant seed or Series A, have a strong product-market fit with customers on board, plus a solid management team in place, and are ready for scale. We call them “scale-ups.” 

Since Start Path launched around six years ago, we have closely engaged with over 200 start-ups.

What do you offer them?

We help start-ups to commercially scale through leveraging a combination of Mastercard’s technology, expertise, and channels. We also work with our colleagues and customers to accelerate commercial products and solutions through engagements with the start-ups. Leveraging our global network of the best innovators in the world, from both start-ups and corporates, we drive measurable impact and advance the future of commerce together.

What are you looking for?

We like companies that are solving local pain points that may be similar in another region. 

A lot of folks think the traditional hubs are still in place — Tel Aviv, London, and Silicon Valley provide a lot of start-ups — but we also see start-ups in Brazil, Colombia, Nigeria. 

Since Mastercard is global, if we see emerging market characteristics that may be similar in another market, we can help them scale across markets — things like merchant onboarding for small merchants and getting them facilitated into taking electronic payments, which can take them into the formal economy so banks can provide them with credit. 

“IN FIVE OR SIX YEARS WE HAVE WORKED WITH START-UPS FROM 120 COUNTRIES, AND THEY HAVE GONE ON TO BE WILDLY SUCCESSFUL, RAISING $1.6 BILLION. OF THAT, ABOUT $1 BILLION IN CAPITAL HAS SUPPORTED OUR WOMEN-FOUNDED/LED COMPANIES."

We see a variety of different complexity, like regulations, sheer distance, and risk aversion.

Any themes evolving? 

In emerging markets we are seeing more and more broad solutions — how to combat data breaches, infrastructure plays. We are seeing a lot with data, how can you use data safely and securely to protect your customers. And, obviously with European open banking changing the landscape, we are also seeing a lot of open banking start-ups.

Do you have a track record?

In five or six years we have worked with start-ups from 120 countries, and they have gone on to be wildly successful, raising $1.6 billion. 

Of that, about $1 billion in capital has supported our women-founded/led companies. 

Our goal is commercialisity, and the success is partly because of the relationships we curate, the bundles we have them into. They learn from some of our process — there has been a lot of learning on both sides — and they take the commercial introductions we have offered.

Mastercard’s Start Path presumably has some pretty good networking?

We have a helluva Rolodex that provides a comprehensive view where we keep track of:

• who is investing

• where the smart money is invested from VCs

• what is happening to our companies pre- and post-program

• what is happening to companies we haven't invested in that might be ready now

How do you define success?

We’re not just making introductions; we really like to see the action hit the market, so we help them work with our own departments or customers and provide a door opener to Mastercard. We can say, “Golly, Latam start-up, you are solving for a problem that is also in Nigeria,” and then we can call up the regions and facilitate an introduction, facilitate a pilot, help develop in one of our labs, and bring these solutions to market faster and enable them to scale.

Are you looking for anything specific?

We get a laundry list from our business units and customers. If we see gaps in market functionality, we look into our networks to see if we have the capability, or if we need to find it. 

During our early start, we were excited at what came in. Now we are more strategic, pointedly sourcing start-ups for pain points, such as AI to glean insights from data, or automating customer service with voice assistants. 

Efficiencies in supply chain and better fraud solutions are always in demand.

Do you work with start-ups led by females?

I have a personal passion to help the success of female founders, because the gender gap in the start-up world is real. 

The going stat is that only 2% of all funding has gone to females — it’s a highly underserved realm. 

Female-founded start-ups perform better than companies with male-only founding teams. In fact, it’s been found that women-led start-up teams generate a 35% higher return on investment than all-male teams, and they do so on a third less capital, which is one of the reasons why finding and supporting brilliant female founders is so important to us. 

We do a lot to advance visibility, and we are actively looking for diverse founders. 

A pain point around the globe is that female founders are disadvantaged, but by getting some of the tools we can help them.

What do you think of the criticism that successful women often undercut other women?

That is an old-school thinking, that women are less supportive. In the circles I work in, I see a lot of females helping females, and it is a fantastically positive experience. 

I am a member of a lot of female groups, strong and like-minded to prop each other up. 

I think that is perhaps an excuse of the olden days. Today we have the power to change that. If we all prop each other up, I think the world is a better place.

Do you see men and women actively working together on these issues to avoid isolating “women’s issues” as a separate topic in tech and fintech?

I’m co-executive sponsor of the Women's Leadership Network for New York City for Mastercard, and we have men in the network for that very purpose. We are providing the sensitivities in both directions — men can learn how to better interact with females, and women can learn better ways to interact with men. The solution doesn't come from isolating genders. Education is needed on both sides, learning how to play on the playground more effectively.

What do you expect to see in five years?

Secure remote commerce, frictionless checkout, e-commerce that is trusted, secure, and personalized without being creepy — easy to get through so it is a delight.