Mastercard and The Heart announced The Heart Ventures during the Impact Fintech conference in Łódź. - Poland is an important market for Mastercard and an increasingly important innovation center in Europe. Together with The Heart and the partners we invited, we will build new companies and give them access to global markets - says Bartosz Ciołkowski, Mastercard's country manager for Poland. The first five companies will be launched next year, in sectors such as insurtech, fintech and realitech.

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The Heart Ventures will work closely with Mastercard Labs, using technologies developed in ten Mastercard research facilities around the world. - A strategic partnership with Mastercard gives The Heart Ventures access to unique know-how and the possibility to create solutions with global potential. By working together, we are able to give comprehensive support to corporations that are trying to transform their business - said The Heart CEO Tomasz Rudolf.

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Investing in The Heart Ventures, which will be managed by Maciej Marszałek, is another one of Mastercard's fintech endeavors in Poland. A few weeks ago the Financial Supervision Authority announced their list of operators for the so-called decentralized regulatory sandbox. The Heart and Mastercard's consortium was among the several companies on the list.