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Press Release

September 22, 2025 | Purchase, NY

 

Mastercard welcomes 11 startups to Start Path’s Emerging Fintech program


Select startups put a spotlight on circular commerce innovation during Climate Week NYC.


Mastercard Start Path today announced the newest cohort of companies joining its award-winning startup engagement program: AraxaTech, Hyperlayer, Kamina, firmly, amnis, Qawn, Save Your Wardrobe, MoovnPay, Pentatonic, Circulae and Circulayo.  

These companies were handpicked during a competitive global selection process for their unique expertise in high-growth sectors including card processing infrastructure, AI-driven credit access, treasury management and digital commerce. Their groundbreaking innovations reflect the evolving demands of the fintech landscape, and Mastercard’s commitment to supporting scalable solutions harnessing emerging technologies.  

As part of Mastercard’s focus on enabling more environmentally conscious choices, this cohort also features a subset of startups dedicated to advancing circular commerce by pioneering technologies for sustainable consumption and lifecycle management of goods.

Meet the Emerging Fintechs:

AraxaTech connects issuers and processors through seamless integrations and zero-downtime migrations.

"Card processing requires technology that performs flawlessly at massive scale and around the clock,” says Ivan Radovanovic, system architect and founder of AraxaTech. “That constant challenge is what sparked my passion for fintech. I believe the future of financial technology lies in freedom — enabled by a new infrastructure paradigm for banks and fintechs to seamlessly combine the best solutions from different providers for an optimized customer experience."

Hyperlayer helps banks and businesses leapfrog competitors with programmable financial products delivered in weeks, not years.

“My experience at a global bank showed the need for technologies that could deliver hyperpersonalized products,” says Rob Rooney, co-founder and CEO, Hyperlayer. “The future of financial services will be agentic and personal, orchestrating transactions across all stores of value. This requires real-time feedback loops from all parties in an ecosystem, configuring and programming the products and services they need.”

Kamina is an AI-enabled platform that helps financial institutions prevent delinquency, reward healthy behavior, and expand responsible credit access.

“Credit was never designed around real behavior,” says Jens Thobo-Carlsen, founder and CEO of Kamina. “We entered the fintech sector to change that. Our vision is to build AI-powered systems that predict, prevent and transform financial stress into trust and opportunities.”

firmly is an agentic commerce platform that allows customers to purchase at a point of inspiration, powering seamless commerce experiences across every digital touchpoint without the need for complex integrations. 

“Commerce shouldn’t be complex, yet merchants today are burdened by fragmented partnerships and rapidly changing consumer habits,” says Kumar N Senthil, CEO of firmly. “We created firmly as an integration layer that empowers merchants, channels and providers to succeed in a frictionless commerce ecosystem, where every moment is shoppable and ‘buy now’ is possible anywhere.” 

amnis empowers mid-sized companies to streamline cross-border banking and financial operations seamlessly in a single platform.

“Over a decade ago, I saw how small and mid-sized companies lacked the integrated financial infrastructure that large corporates took for granted,” says Michael Wüst, co-founder and CEO of amnis. “With amnis, my vision is to empower SMEs with world-class tools to manage global payments, FX, and financial operations — without complexity or high costs.”

Qawn is a chat-based banking solution that facilitates value exchanges across the Middle East.

"Across the Middle East, people are united by language and culture, yet sending cross-border payments is increasingly difficult," says CINO Jordan Ahli Bank & in charge of Qawn."Qawn is building chat-based financial services that make sending money as easy as sending a text message. We're creating a future where 450 million Arabs can support their families, grow their businesses and connect financially as easily as we connect socially." 

MoovnPay is redefining the way people move, pay and shop online through a seamless ecosystem of platforms, powered by Moovn Technologies.

“When we expanded MOOVN into African markets, we encountered a significant challenge operating in economies where cash dominated nearly every transaction,” says Godwin Gabriel, CEO of MOOVN. “This forced us to quickly find a solution for collecting revenue and scaling. The answer was to build MoovnPay, an integrated payment solution for powering transactions across the MOOVN ecosystem. What began as a necessity quickly became my personal passion, rooted in financial inclusion. With MoovnPay, we’re not just enabling payments, but also transforming lives, empowering communities and creating a future where everyone can participate in a digital economy.”

Save Your Wardrobe is a customizable tech infrastructure that empowers companies to design, test and scale after-sale services beyond transactions.

“I saw an opportunity to better understand how customers interact with products after purchase, and how much value can be created in those moments,” says Hasna Kourda, founder and CEO of Save Your Wardrobe. “The future of digital payments requires smart, customizable infrastructures that can help companies design more effective post-purchase journeys with customer experience at the center.”

Pentatonic is the AI-native, drop-in solution for brands and retailers to own their secondhand market by automating product buybacks and routing them to resale, repair, or recycling: creating a loyalty flywheel and waste-free product lifecycles.

"The consumer economy is fundamentally a product allocation problem that I believe AI could solve,” says Johann Boedecker, co-Founder and CEO. “We're creating an infrastructure where every physical object becomes as liquid as money. Giving brands end-to-end lifecycle control for the first time and revolutionizing secondhand is just our entry point to reprogramming how value flows through the entire economy.”

Circulae helps millions of people regain purchasing power, reduce waste and consume more responsibly by integrating an automated “resale” service into payment methods.

“I’m driven to create simple and scalable solutions that can make a meaningful impact on people’s lives,” says David Gascoin, CEO of Circulae. “I see financial technology not as an end in itself, but as the most powerful lever — combining data, AI and payment networks — to accelerate systemic change such as the growth of the circular economy.”

Circulayo is transforming reusable packaging systems through financial touchpoints, with instant deposits, refunds, rewards and environmental impact measurements.

“I was drawn to the fintech sector to rewire traditional systems to be smarter, faster and more sustainable, says Andy Flinn, CEO and founder of Circulayo. “With Circulayo, I see a future where every reusable package becomes a smart financial touchpoint, delivering instant refunds and rewards that generate measurable ESG outcomes at a global scale.” 

A force multiplier for good

The Mastercard Economics Institute recently explored how the circular economy is gaining momentum for consumers, driven by environmental considerations, new avenues for buyer-seller connections, and broader access to high-quality, affordable alternatives to new merchandise.

With an acceptance network of more than 150 million merchants, thousands of banking partners, and more than 3.5 billion cards in circulation, Mastercard is in a unique position to inspire, inform and enable people to make more conscious purchasing choices, and Start Path supports this as a force multiplier for good.  

In collaboration with Start Path’s network of startups, Mastercard has piloted card-linked rewards that drive reuse behavior in high-footfall environments university campuses. Mastercard has also partnered with cities and tourist attractions to reduce single-use waste, powering frictionless, digitized deposit return schemes that enable nearly instant refunds via Mastercard Move. These efforts reflect Mastercard’s commitment to embedding sustainability technology into the fabric of commerce— making it scalable, profitable, and aligned with consumer values.

For more information, visit Mastercard Start Path Emerging Fintech and Environmental Sustainability at Mastercard

 


Media contact

 

Molly Corasaniti Levine

Molly.CorasanitiLevine@mastercard.com

 

Marielle Brunelle

Marielle.Brunelle@mastercard.com


About Start Path

Start Path, Mastercard’s award-winning global startup engagement arm, offers support for startups to scale innovative solutions in specialized areas such as blockchain, digital assets, emerging fintech, open finance, small business, acceptance and more. Since its inception in 2014, Mastercard Start Path has welcomed over 500 startups across more than 60 countries — many of which are entering public markets, reaching unicorn status and exploring extended commercial engagements with Mastercard and its customers.   

 

About Mastercard

Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re building a resilient economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential.

www.mastercard.com