Payments giant Visa plans to invest $100 million in startups focused on developing generative artificial intelligence technologies and applications.
The company called the initiative an expansion of AI-based innovation in payments that Visa began in 1993.
Generative AI is a field of technology that uses large language models to generate text, images, and other content based on a set of clues.
“While much of generative AI has so far focused on content creation tasks, this technology will soon not only change the way we live and work, but will also significantly modify commerce in ways that we have yet to understand,” said the chief product officer and strategy Jack Forestell.
Investments will be made through Visa Ventures, the venture capital arm of the payments company created in 2007.
In comments to TechCrunch, Visa Ventures head David Rolfe said the firm “has a lot of flexibility” regarding the number and average size of future investments.
“Given the early stage of development of the industry, we expect to make a number of small investments in the range of several million dollars,” he said.
If there are “compelling reasons,” the division will be able to allocate larger amounts, the head of Visa Ventures added.
Rolf called the main criteria for supporting startups the desire to use artificial intelligence to “solve real problems in trade, payments and financial technologies.”
Let’s remember that in September, Writer, a generative AI platform for corporations, raised $100 million in a Series B funding round.
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