Celcoin was one of the five finalist startups chosen to travel to Silicon Valley in May as part of Visa’s 2018 acceleration program, run in partnership with Kyvo Design-Driven Innovation. For us, the acceleration is an opportunity for the company to prepare even further to offer innovative, high-quality services to individuals and businesses: turning the smartphone into a multi-service terminal and making financial services available to small entrepreneurs, helping them earn extra income easily and efficiently.
Right now, our Celcoin team is building a new service that grew out of a service design project developed together with Kyvo during the selection stage. The idea is to create a feature that will further expand what the Celcoin app can do, simplifying small entrepreneurs’ daily routine and increasing their revenue. At the same time, we are already preparing for the next stage of the program, which takes place in Silicon Valley from May 19 to June 16, through daily mentoring sessions organized by Visa.
About the Acceleration Program
The Visa Acceleration Program started in 2017 and has grown since last year: 30 companies will be selected across two editions during 2018. Participants fall into two distinct profiles: Growth and Start. The early-stage startups (classified as “Start”) are still to be chosen; Celcoin is among the companies already established in the market and growing fast (called “Growth”), which have already been selected.
Since April, the entrepreneurs have been going through immersion, bootcamps, and strategy work. The program offers up to five months of acceleration and incubation, during which the startups follow an intense mentoring routine in a coworking space in São Paulo. Companies in the Growth category finish the program with a one-month experience in the United States at GSVlabs, currently the largest accelerator in Silicon Valley.
Taking part in an acceleration program is intense: for about 3 months your calendar becomes chaotic, as you juggle your startup’s work, investors, and the countless mentoring sessions and bootcamps you attend. Yes, it is hard work, but being accelerated by Visa and Kyvo GSVlabs is more than rewarding. Visa’s goal is to align itself with innovative startups and be recognized as a pioneer in startup acceleration in Brazil, and its program is already recognized as one of the best in the Brazilian market.
From signing up to being chosen to take part, everything really was very accelerated. Less than a week passed between Celcoin being confirmed for the Pitch Fest and our selection. Having your pitch deck ready is essential at this point.
Once we were in the acceleration program, the process began with a bootcamp to define a project to be developed with Visa, using the Design Thinking methodology known as Service Design. This week we are running a Design Sprint for the service we are creating, all mentored by Visa executives.
For us, one of the most important parts of the program has also been the interaction between the accelerated companies and the stakeholders. We took part in the “coffee Visa”, where each startup presented its company to about 50 Visa employees. In other words, Visa as a company is broadly engaged with the program, and that is essential for a great outcome for everyone involved.
This past week, 9 startups in the Start category joined the program. Meanwhile, we will continue our daily mentoring sessions to prepare for the one-month experience in Silicon Valley, from May 19 to June 16.
Our goal with the program
Celcoin grew 514% in April this year compared with the same period last year, operating across the country through 8500 “Celcoin agents”: small entrepreneurs who use the app to provide services to their own customers. To keep building on this work, our goal is to surpass, in number of agents, the total number of lottery outlets and bank branches in the country within 2 years. By 2022, the goal is to reach 250,000 agents and process 20 million transactions per month.
The great benefits of taking part in such a well-structured acceleration program are learning new methodologies for developing services and products, plus the extensive networking built over the period with the program’s partner companies and the other participating startups. We have big plans for the coming years, and this kind of initiative brings us even closer to carrying out those plans and reaching the goals we have set for ourselves.
What about you: are you thinking about joining an accelerator? First, ask yourself whether you are ready to be mentored. Entrepreneurs can often be blind to the businesses they have built so far. So, based on our experience in the program, our advice is: join an acceleration program with an open mind and heart, and get ready to learn a lot.
