Mastercard Expands Startup Engagement Program to Include Agentic Commerce

Mastercard has expanded its startup engagement program Start Path to include agentic commerce and services.

This new part of the program will focus on agent platforms and agentic enablement, agent-native tools and services, and emerging agentic payment flows.

Applications for the next cohort are open now, Mastercard said in a Tuesday (Jan. 20) press release.

It joins the existing Start Path programs that are focused on acceptance, blockchain and digital assets, emerging FinTech, open finance, small business and security solutions.

Start Path offers startups benefits that include connections with Mastercard’s global network of partners and customers, as well as access to opportunities to collaborate on new products and services, according to the release.

The startup engagement program was launched in 2014 and has grown to include more than 500 companies from 60 countries, per the release.

As of September, Start Path had brokered 15,000 global connections, and its participating startups had raised over $25 billion in capital after their time in the program, Mastercard said at the time.

When selecting startups to invite to join the program, Mastercard looks for a unique and proven solution, a strategic fit with its strategy and business, an investment raised with a product live in market and generating revenue, and founders with strong backgrounds who are passionate and ready to scale, according to a web page about Start Path.

Mastercard said in the Tuesday release that the expansion of Start Path will enable the company to “engage with innovative newcomers who can bring the cutting-edge technology, products and services that make agentic commerce essential for people and businesses.”

The company also announced in the release that it joined Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, which enables interoperability between AI agents and merchants, and that it is working with Microsoft to bring Mastercard Agent Pay to Copilot Checkout.

“Intelligent agents can accelerate the pace of commerce only if the foundation beneath them is predictable, secure and universally understood,” Mastercard said in the release. “That’s why we’re building the standards, partnerships and capabilities that allow innovation to move at full speed without losing the coordination that keeps the system flowing.”