Venly Finance Wins Mastercard For Fintechs Semifinal to Advance to European Finals

Belgian stablecoin infrastructure provider Venly Finance and French AI specialist Giskard AI have secured spots in the Mastercard For Fintechs 2026 European final. For fintech professionals, this highlights the maturing intersection of digital assets and artificial intelligence within established payment networks, as traditional giants like Mastercard integrate these technologies into mainstream financial services.

What was announced

Venly Finance and Giskard AI were named winners of the France-Belgium semifinal during an event held on September 22 at the Hôtel de l'Industrie in Paris. The two companies emerged from a field of six semifinalists, which included Tranched, SPORTYNEO, Cashlab, and Peaky. A jury of experts from Mastercard and the broader European fintech ecosystem evaluated the presentations based on the relevance of the solutions and their potential impact on financial services.

The "Mastercard For Fintechs" programme is currently in its third edition and has attracted significant interest across the continent, receiving more than 240 applications. Of these, 63 originated from France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Venly was specifically awarded the "Mastercard For Fintechs 2026, Belux Winner" trophy, marking its position as the top contender from the Belgium and Luxembourg region.

Venly’s core offering is a stablecoin payment infrastructure designed for neobanks, payment service providers (PSPs), and marketplaces. The platform allows these entities to integrate stablecoin accounts, conversions, and payouts via a single API, removing the need for firms to build their own blockchain stacks while maintaining their own product branding and customer relationships.

Both winners will now advance to the European final in Milan on November 25, 2026. They will compete against winners from other regional rounds held in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal. The ultimate winner of the programme will receive €100,000 in marketing support, alongside personal mentoring and preferential access to Mastercard’s Start Path programme.

"For us, this is another strong signal that stablecoins are moving from experimentation into real payment infrastructure. Our focus has always been on making the underlying technology disappear: giving fintechs and payment companies a practical way to move money globally using stablecoins without forcing them to become blockchain companies themselves. Milan is the next step."

Tim Dierckxsens, CEO and Founder of Venly.

The companies involved

Venly Finance is a Belgian company focused on bridging the gap between traditional finance and digital assets. By providing the infrastructure for stablecoin transactions, the company enables fintechs to maintain their existing customer relationships while leveraging blockchain for global money movement. This recognition follows Venly's selection in May 2024 for Mastercard’s Start Path Blockchain and Digital Assets programme, a global initiative for high-growth startups. The company positions itself as a provider of blockchain infrastructure and payment solutions that facilitate international digital transactions.

Giskard AI is a French company specializing in artificial intelligence. Its inclusion in the final alongside Venly reflects a broader industry trend where AI and digital assets are viewed as the two primary pillars of future financial services innovation. Mastercard, the global payments technology major, operates one of the world's fastest payments processing networks, connecting consumers, financial institutions, and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Through its "For Fintechs" and "Start Path" programmes, Mastercard has positioned itself as a central hub for emerging technology companies, providing them with the scale and expertise of its global network to pilot and deploy new financial solutions.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely followed the integration of stablecoins and AI within the payments landscape. Recently, we reported on how SoFi Bank Scales Stablecoin Settlement to $25B via Mastercard Network, demonstrating the increasing scale at which these assets are being used for institutional settlement. The rise of AI in the sector has also been a recurring theme, with coverage of how Corpay Expands AI Agent Suite to Automate Corporate Spend and Accounting Workflows and LoanPro Launches AI Servicing Agents and Real-Time Card Disbursements for Lenders. Additionally, the move toward API-led payment models was highlighted in our report on how FMPay Combines API-Led Payments with Human Risk Experts for Mid-Market Fintechs.

What this means

The selection of a stablecoin infrastructure provider and an AI firm as regional winners signals a shift in what major card schemes consider mission-critical fintech. The industry is moving past the era of simple digital wallets toward sophisticated backend infrastructure that abstracts the complexity of blockchain and machine learning. For the wider market, this puts pressure on traditional payment processors to either build similar API-led capabilities or risk losing neobank and marketplace clients to specialized infrastructure players. The core question for the sector is no longer whether these technologies are viable, but how quickly they can be standardized across cross-border payment corridors to provide a seamless experience for end-users.