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Kale Nyabo wins Visa Everywhere Digital Commerce Award

Kale Nyabo won the Visa Everywhere Digital Commerce Award during JA Europe Enterprise Challenge after winning the national final of the JA Start Up Programme in Denmark.
JA Start Up programme’s European Enterprise Challenge final took place in Riga (Latvia) on June 25-27 with altogether 16 student start-up teams from 15 countries.
The judges also commended the entry from Latvia, PLUKT, which ended up first runner up of the main award with their organic tea.

The JA Europe Enterprise Challenge is JA Europe’s annual celebration of the achievements of its Start Up programme students and their companies from across Europe. At this event, the winning companies from all participating countries will proudly present their business ideas and share their experiences and learnings. The finalists have been chosen to participate the final after national semi-finals organised in Europe.

Visa has been collaborating with JA Europe since 2014, supporting the JA Start Up programme among other initiatives. The collaboration aims to make a distinctive, high profile and meaningful impact in the enterprise and financial literacy education space, equipping young people with the skills to succeed in a global economy.

"The Visa Digital Commerce Everywhere Award is a concrete example of how business can support young entrepreneurs. VISA is bringing its own knowledge of digital transformation to the table, helping inform and prepare the next generation of innovators.  Young people’s success will depend on their ability to take on tomorrow’s challenges,” explained Caroline Jenner, CEO of JA Europe.

As part of their collaboration with the JA Start Up programme, Visa presented the Visa Everywhere Digital Commerce Award, recognising the start-up in the strongest position to capitalise on change by embodying the values driving digital commerce. Based on their innovative solution to empower single mothers in Uganda by selling their handmade accessories around the world, the start-up Kale Nyabo won the Visa Award.

“We always work very hard to support as many single underprivileged mothers in Uganda as we can. It is very rewarding to see that Visa also senses the commercial potential of our startup. It is a huge clap on the shoulder and the Visa award was definitely the one we were aiming at. We can’t wait to meet with the Visa mentors and we look forward to go to London and start the collaboration with them”, says Soraya Zieren, co-funder of Kale Nyabo.

In addition to a 1000 euros cash prize, Kale Nyabo will receive a mentoring session at the Visa Innovation Center in London.

“For Visa, the JA European Enterprise Challenge is a great indicator for us of the innovative start-up talent emerging in many of our European markets.  We are delighted that through our work with JA Europe we have been able to support and mentor young people with great ideas, helping them hone their business ideas and develop them for today’s digital economy.  Being here in Riga this week is one aspect of our overall commitment to working with the global start up community which will be instrumental in driving the next big thing in digital commerce”, says Anthony Craufurd, Director, Visa Ventures.

Visa Signature Award jury members:  

• Anthony Craufurd, Director Visa Ventures
• Juris Paegle, Country Lead, Baltics, Visa
• Majda Nogo, Head of Business Development, Nordics, Visa

Visa Everywhere Award for Digital Commerce judging criteria:

• Innovation: Customers today expect businesses to seamlessly anticipate their needs as the world changes, with the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or enhance existing needs.
• Globalisation: Customers and businesses today operate in a global networked economy. Goods are made and sold all over the world, countries are closer to each other and goods, money and ideas can be exchanged faster and cheaper than ever before.
• Consumer Control: Consumers today have taken complete control. They are connected, confident and curious. They care about cost, convenience and quality of their experience. They have the means to take more control of their behaviours and also their relationships with organisations – starting by taking advantage of the data they leave in their wake.

About JA Europe
JA Europe (www.jaeurope.org ) is Europe’s largest provider of education programmes for entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy, reaching 3.6 million students in 41 countries in 2017. JA works with the education and business communities as well as governments to provide young people from primary school to university with experiences that build the skills and competences they will need to succeed in a global economy. JA Europe is the European Regional Operating Centre for JA Worldwide®.

About Visa Inc.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world's most advanced processing networks — VisaNet — that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead of time with prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information, visit http://usa.visa.com/about-visa.html , http://visacorporate.tumblr.com  and @VisaInEurope.


Contacts:
Visa Press Office, London   +44 20 7795 5336    europeanmedia@visa.com