Mastercard launched the Lighthouse program in 2018 in the Nordics and Baltics to foster symbiotic growth between banks, fintechs, and Mastercard. The program’s achievements are laudable: The companies that participated in the Mastercard Lighthouse program have raised over €1 billion during or following the program. The winners of the Mastercard Lighthouse program receive an invitation to the Mastercard Global Start Path program to pitch for potential participation.
Lighthouse provides global network access to help startups scale geographically. It involves structured workshops with banks, advisors, experts, and investors,” says Mats Taraldsson, Head of Fintech and Impact Tech Engagement at Mastercard, Northern Europe.
The program has two main tracks:
• Lighthouse FINITIV, the partnership program focused on fintech startups and scale-ups
• Lighthouse MASSIV, which is focused on social impact startups that empower sustainability
“Our MASSIV program aligns with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in financial inclusion, making the world more prosperous and secure, and sustainability and environmental initiatives,” says Mats Taraldsson.
Why Mastercard began the Lighthouse program in the Nordics and Baltics
Mats Taraldsson describes Mastercard’s mission as one of providing globally excellent payment solutions and making those payments safe, simple, and secure for consumers, merchants, businesses, and governments. “Innovation is key for us to accomplish this,” he says.
Mastercard began the Lighthouse program due to the immense innovation and creative solutions happening in the Nordics and Baltics.
Because the region is made up of small geographic zones with different languages, the startups in the area have focused on a global market from the start.
The Baltics, especially, focus on a European market from the start due to each country’s relatively small size.
“There are no signs of innovation slowing down in the Nordic and Baltic regions,” says Taraldsson.
The Nordics and Baltics have a vibrant fintech startup landscape, and Mastercard hopes to help these companies through primarily a partnership approach.
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What the program offers
Mastercard’s focus is to help companies grow through expert guidance, access to bank networks and expert advisors, and through supporting geographical scaling. In some cases, Mastercard will become a co-creator where the startup’s services might integrate well with Mastercard services. Mastercard may also partner directly, such as in the case of Aiia, a previous year’s participant that Mastercard initially partnered with and then ultimately acquired.
About the Program for start-ups
Mastercard selects 20 participants twice a year to take part in the Fall and Spring Lighthouse program. All participants must be based in or active in the Nordic or Baltic region, and focus on some aspect related to payments.
When selecting participants to the program, Mastercard looks at these factors:
• Likeliness to succeed with their service or solution
• Market interest
• Potential
The likelihood to succeed is the most important factor in the selection process.
The Lighthouse FINITIV Spring edition runs from March to June, and the Fall edition runs from September to December. Each program consists of three in-person workshops with continuous, remote support. After the first workshop, partners and startups will determine which potential partnerships will be pursued.
Three finalist companies will be invited to the Mastercard Grand Finale event typically held at Latitude 59 in Tallinn for the Spring program and Slush in Helsinki for the Fall program. The program winner will receive an opportunity to pitch at Mastercard’s Start Path Pitch Day.
Additionally, all participants become part of the Mastercard Lighthouse alumni network, which remains active through ongoing communication and meetups.