Last December, Visa Innovation Programme Europe launched its first Nordics & Baltics initiative, with the idea of bringing together a new cohort of regional fintechs focused on B2B payments and financial infrastructure. The process began with 81 applications, which were then narrowed to 15 shortlisted companies and, ultimately, to eight finalists for the six-month that concluded last week.
Wallester joined the initiative as an official programme partner. Our CTO, Andrei Gornostajev, also took part in the Selection Day jury together with representatives from Visa, Tenity, and other programme partners. We were particularly proud to see Beneflo, a fintech-HR startup built on Wallester White-Label, among the eight selected companies.
From Selection Day to the Final Stage
The cohort was officially announced at the kick-off event in Helsinki on 4 December. Over the following six months, the selected fintechs took part in expert-led sessions, workshops, mentoring, ecosystem introductions, and regional industry events designed to help them build, test, and position their solutions.
According to the programme’s final recap, the initiative included more than 40 introductions, 10 Visa contacts, 8 expert-led sessions, and 3 major ecosystem events across the region. Geographically, the cohort moved through Helsinki, Stockholm, and Riga, and closed, appropriately enough, last week at Baltic Fintech Days.
For Wallester, the role was twofold. We supported the programme as an official partner, but also contributed directly to the selection process at the outset. For Beneflo, apart from learning new things along the way, the programme offered a strong regional platform to present its product in front of investors, ecosystem players, and industry peers.
Beneflo in the Cohort
Of course, Beneflo’s inclusion mattered for another reason as well, because it showed how a Wallester White-Label client could enter the programme with a product already solving a practical problem.
Built on Wallester White-Label, Beneflo enables employers to offer flexible, borderless employee benefits through a card-based platform. Companies can define spending categories such as wellness, education, or mobility, while employees use their Beneflo Visa card across Europe without the usual administrative friction.
That made the company a strong fit for a programme centred on payments innovation. It also gave Beneflo the chance to develop its regional visibility while continuing to refine the product over the course of the six-month initiative.
What Wallester White-Label Enabled
Using Wallester’s REST API, virtual Visa cards, and real-time transaction controls, Beneflo built a product that combines employer control with employee flexibility.
As Alex Snurnitsyn, CEO and Co-founder of Beneflo, explained: “Wallester gave us a partner who wouldn’t get in the way of our core promise: freedom of choice. Their infrastructure allowed us to launch quickly, scale efficiently, and maintain a seamless user experience.”
That combination – speed to launch, operational flexibility, and embedded card infrastructure – is exactly what many newer fintech products need if they want to go to market quickly without building the full finance stack themselves.
A Strong First Cohort
The first Nordics & Baltics cohort of Visa Innovation Programme Europe has now come to a close. For Wallester, it was a chance to support a new regional initiative from the beginning, both as a programme partner and through participation in the jury process. And we are very glad that we did.
As this first cohort moves on from the programme, it will be worth watching what comes next, both for Beneflo and for the wider Nordics & Baltics fintech ecosystem. We will definitely be keeping a close eye on it.
