Visa has launched a creator initiative to enable small company owners such as filmmakers, digital-first artists, singers, and fashion designers understand how non-fungible tokens (NFT) might help them grow their businesses.
Visa said it will choose a group of entrepreneurs for the creator programme and provide them with technical mentorship, access to researchers and specialists in cryptography, web3, and online commerce, as well as opportunities to engage with Visa’s client and partner firms.
Creators will also receive one-time money in the form of a stipend to help them build their businesses. Visa will also assist them in connecting with a bigger network of creators and exchanging ideas.
Cuy Sheffield, head of Crypto business at Visa feels, NFTs can be a powerful accelerator for the creator economy. He said Visa has been studying the NFT ecosystem and its potential impact on online 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,” he added.
Creator economy is one of the fastest growing segments in small business. As per Kalaari Capital’s estimates, the total size of the global creator economy was $104.2 billion in 2021. India is home to 80 million creators and knowledge professionals.
Visa has a number of schemes in place to assist small businesses. For example, through the She Next programme, the organisation has provided funding and business training to women-led small enterprises.
For digital artists and innovators, NFTs have emerged as a new source of money. In India, a number of actors, musicians, and artists have coined NFTs of their work and sold them on NFT marketplaces. In the recent few months, a slew of new marketplaces and platforms have popped up in India to assist developers in minting and selling NFTs. The global NFT industry generated over $23 billion in transactions in 2021, according to crypto-analysis platform DappRadar.
