Payment processor Worldpay plans to seed a new business incubator program through Georgia Tech that it hopes will lead to the next generation of ways people and businesses pay for things.
Worldpay, which handles electronic payments between merchants and their customers, will announce on Tuesday a $1 million gift to the Advanced Technology Development Center to start a new accelerator program for financial technology startups and entrepreneurs.
It’s a first of its kind gift to ATDC, the Georgia Tech incubator that has launched more than 150 companies over the past 35 years, said ATDC director Stephen Fleming. Along with the three-year funding for the incubator program, Worldpay will also make executives and other resources available.
“Payments are changing rapidly. Financial services are changing rapidly,” said Tony Catalfano, CEO of Worldpay US.
Georgia is a payment processing hub. The American Transaction Processors Coalition, an industry group, said more than 70 percent of all payments in the U.S. are processed in Georgia. The industry supports more than 40,000 jobs in Georgia.
New entrants in payments — including Apple, Google, AT&T and Square — put pressure on traditional processors to innovate.
Worldpay is moving its U.S. headquarters from Sandy Springs to a tower in Atlantic Station, in part to be closer to Georgia Tech and its talent base. Worldpay also promised to double its metro Atlanta headcount to more than 1,200.
The new program started as Worldpay was examining where to move its headquarters, Catalfano said. Worldpay would not have first dibs on the new companies or their new innovations, but it would give Worldpay a window into new technologies, while giving those startups a boost.
The partnership also will fund an entrepreneur-in-residence and additional staffers to mentor emerging companies, Fleming said.
Fleming said the Worldpay partnership could be replicated for other key industries, and he predicted it could attract emerging companies in other regions to grow here.
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