Visa launches Creator Program to help next-gen entrepreneurs understand & use NFTs

In line with Visa’s efforts to help small and micro businesses gain greater access to the digital economy, the company has launched the ‘Visa Creator Program’.

The initiative aims to help digital-first artists, musicians, fashion designers, and filmmakers strengthen their small businesses using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to navigate through the new category of commerce.  

The company said that as of now, close to 50 million artists, musicians, and creators across the world publish content as a full- or part-time source of income. With an estimated market size of more than $100 billion, the creator economy is one of the fastest-growing categories of small businesses.

To support this growth with the Visa Creator Program, the company aims to help creators navigate the technology behind NFTs and be able to better understand what value it can unlock for digital ownership and monetisation of creative assets, making it more accessible. 

“NFTs have the potential to become a powerful accelerator for the creator economy,” said Cuy Sheffield, Head of the Crypto, Visa. “We’ve been studying the NFT ecosystem and its potential impacts on the future of commerce, retail and social media. Through the Visa Creator Program, we want to help this new breed of small and micro businesses tap into new mediums for digital commerce.”  

Selected creators will join a cohort-driven program designed to build and deepen their fluency in crypto commerce and traditional payments. The program is focused on supporting creators in five key areas:

- Technical and product mentorship: Mentorship with Visa’s team of crypto product and strategy leaders, to cover topics including evaluating trade-offs between underlying blockchain networks, smart contracts, and NFT marketplaces.  

- Community building: The opportunity to exchange ideas and problem-solve with a community of creators in various stages of their NFT journey.  

- Access to thought leaders: Access to leading-edge thinkers and researchers working across digital commerce, web3, crypto, and payments.  

- Exposure to Visa’s clients and partners: Opportunities to engage with companies across Visa’s network of clients and partners. 

- Stipend: One-time stipend to help creators kickstart the next phase of growth.  

The company said it is focused on  digitally enabling small and micro businesses through opportunities to access funding, resources, and  expertise as the concept of small businesses continues to expand and evolve.