Drugstoc emerges winner of the 2023 Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI) Global Finals

Drugstoc has emerged the winner of the 2023 Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI) Global Finals and the Audience Favorite Award taking home the grand prize of $50,000 and $10,000 respectively.

The Nigerian startup represented by co-founder and CEO, Chibuzor Opara, beat four other underlisted finalists to win the grand prize at the TechCrunch Disrupt event which took place on the 19th of September 2023 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California.

• Jonas Overgaard – Founder & CEO at Anyday
• Saksham Shubham – Business Head – APAC at Decentro
• Jeff Catalano – Co-founder & CEO at Payment Porte
• Carolina Nucamendi – Co-founder & CEO at Waivr

Drugstoc won the 1st place prize of $20,000 in the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA) edition edition of the VEI in August 2023.

In 2022, another Nigerian startup, Thrive Agric won the overall global prize of VEI 2022.

This year’s judging panel included:

• Ayodeji Arikawe – Co-founder at Thrive Agric and global winner of VEI 2022
• Emily Man – Partner at Primary Ventures
• Rodrigo Barros de Paula – Regional Head of Fintech Partnerships for LAC at Visa
• Akshay Chopra – VP, Head of Innovation & Design for CEMEA at Visa
• Ralph Koker – Visa Direct VP & Head of Market Expansion at Visa
• Dan Roesbery – VP, Fintech Business Development at Visa

The judges assessed each finalist based on the quality of their solution and presentation, the opportunities it offers to partner with Visa and clients, and the desirability, uniqueness and feasibility of their production or solution.

The Visa Everywhere Initiative is an open innovation programme that helps startups unlock new growth and partnership opportunities. It also provides startups with a global platform to demonstrate their ground-breaking solutions. 

Since its inception in 2015, VEI has welcomed some of the most promising startups and fintech firms from over 100 countries into its program. After completing the program, these companies have collectively secured over $16 billion in funding, effectively tackling the significant hurdles that early-stage entrepreneurs often encounter.