Mastercard Start Path

Mastercard Start Path is Mastercard's flagship global startup engagement programme, launched in 2014 to connect high-growth fintechs with Mastercard's commercial network, mentorship and co-innovation resources. Unlike traditional equity accelerators it takes no equity and charges no fees; selected startups gain access to Mastercard's ecosystem of 150M+ merchants, thousands of banking partners and billions of cards. Dublin — Mastercard's sole European Technology Hub, with 2,000+ staff — anchors the programme's European engagement.

The programme runs rolling cohorts of five to fifteen startups across specialised tracks including Emerging Fintech, Acceptance, Blockchain & Digital Assets, Open Finance, Small Business, Security Solutions and the newest Agentic Commerce track (added 2026). Since inception it has engaged more than 500 startups from 60+ countries, whose alumni have raised over $25bn in follow-on capital. Notable alumni include unicorns Revolut and Thought Machine (UK), Razorpay and Zeta (India) and Airwallex, alongside European fintechs such as Doconomy (Sweden) and Irish fraud-prevention startup Urban Fox.