Mastercard launches Strive India; acquires minority stake in MTN Group

Mastercard announced the launch of Mastercard Strive India on Tuesday. The move is aimed at bolstering small businesses to thrive in the digital economy by 2025. In addition to Strive India, it has similar programs in the UK, US, Indonesia, Mexico, Malaysia, and Czechia.

Mastercard Strive India

Through relevant collaborations, Mastercard Strive India will focus on the country’s small businesses by encouraging the adoption of new digital tools. This is in addition to facilitating access to digital financial services and markets.

Strive India will add to the philanthropic programs supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, which are keen on assisting small businesses across the globe to succeed in the digital economy.

According to Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth’s Vice President for Social Impact in Asia Pacific, Subhashini Chandran, “Small businesses are poised to become India’s largest employer, can help make inclusion a cornerstone of the country’s journey to becoming a $5 trillion economy…”

Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth has been in India since 2014. To date, it has launched three major digital inclusion programs namely; Mainstreaming Agricultural Networks & Development Initiatives (MANDI), Digital Saksham, and Rural Chamber of Commerce.

The launch of Mastercard Strive India comes just a day after it agreed to take a minority stake in MTN Group’s fintech business. The latter is Africa’s largest wireless carrier and has since split its business unit from its core telecoms operations. In the first half of 2023, it had its transactions volume rise by 37% from 61 to 8.3 billion million active users.

The size of Mastercard’s stake will remain undisclosed until the deal is completed. Even so, the transaction values the broader fintech unit at $5.2 billion.