Visa unveils a $100 million Generative AI Ventures initiative to invest in the development of generative AI technologies and applications set to revolutionize the future of commerce and payments. The initiative, spearheaded by Visa Ventures, builds upon Visa’s legacy of pioneering AI in payments and aims to support innovative startups at the intersection of generative AI, commerce, and payments.
13 October 2023 – Visa, a global powerhouse in the realm of payment solutions, has announced a pioneering venture worth $100 million. This initiative is set to fund the next wave of companies dedicated to advancing generative AI technologies and applications, with a profound impact expected on the landscape of commerce and payments.
Since its early foray into the application of AI in payments dating back to 1993, Visa views this venture as a natural extension of its commitment to spearheading innovation in the payments sphere. The company’s utilization of AI has been pivotal in fostering value for its partners and clients, while simultaneously empowering the global commerce ecosystem. Generative AI, an evolving subset of artificial intelligence, harnesses the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) to develop artificial general intelligence capable of generating text, images, or other content based on extensive sets of existing data and user prompts.
Jack Forestell, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Visa Inc., underlined the transformative potential of generative AI by stating, “While much of generative AI so far has been focused on tasks and content creation, this technology will soon not only reshape how we live and work, but it will also meaningfully change commerce in ways we need to understand.”
The Generative AI Ventures initiative will be overseen by Visa Ventures, the corporate investment arm of Visa with a longstanding history of investments and partnerships with companies driving innovation in payments and commerce since 2007. David Rolf, Head of Visa Ventures at Visa Inc., emphasized the profound potential of generative AI technology, stating, “With generative AI’s potential to be one of the most transformative technologies of our time, we are excited to expand our focus to invest in some of the most innovative and disruptive venture-backed startups building across generative AI, commerce, and payments.”
