Mastercard working to support smaller startups

Global Business

CCTV’s Paulo Cabral looks at how startups could be benefiting from a big company’s openness.

Mastercard buys Brazilian start up app, Diin

Brazil is typically a tech innovation hotbed. CCTV's Paulo Cabral looked at one app's good fortune when MasterCard snapped up its idea.

Many businesses these days begin with a laptop and a good idea. Some ideas are good enough, or their promoters lucky enough, to get mentoring and funding to get those businesses up and running. That was the case for Guilherme Pinheiro.

His company’s app is called Diin.  It is a payment platform for children and teenagers to use in e-commerce purchases, as if they had an e-allowance from their family. It allows parents to control their children’s expenses and also shops to sell without running any risks.

Their project was picked up by credit card giant MasterCard. Company executives say innovation is key for growth in a changing business environment.

“MasterCard is usually a payment company and was not recognized by startups and by developers as a partner. Our main goal is to be closer to these guys and to provide them with open APIs, financial incentives and knowledge to bring them closer to and create these new products. They are already connected with other tech companies like Google, like Apple, like Microsoft and it’s our turn to be closer to them and to give them all the pillars they need to move forward.” Marcelo Theodoro with MasterCard said.

The smartphone and mobile internet markets are booming in Brazil and people here are often described as early adopters.  This means people here are always interested in testing new products.  Companies investing in innovation have noticed and see Brazil as fertile ground waiting to be explored.