OmniCard Wins 3rd Place at the NTT Startup Challenge 2026
In short: OmniCard placed 3rd at the NTT Startup Challenge 2026. More than 1,700 startups from Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, India and Australia entered the programme. Ten reached the Grand Final on 11 November 2026 in Jakarta, and three won: SatSure, Neurowyzr and OmniCard.
OmniCard receives 3rd place at the Grand Final in Jakarta, 11 November 2026. Photo: NTT Startup Challenge.
About the NTT Startup Challenge
The NTT Startup Challenge is NTT Group's programme for working with startups across Asia-Pacific. Since 2016 it has received more than 8,200 applications. The 2026 edition was hosted by NTT Holdings and its group companies, and for 2026 it was open to startups from Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, India and Australia.
Entries were narrowed down over several rounds to ten finalists, who pitched at the Grand Final. The speakers and judges for 2026 included:
- Kuan Hsu, Managing Director, Synexia Ventures (NTT Group's investment vehicle for Southeast Asia)
- Ben Tulloch, Executive Managing Director, NTT DATA APAC
- Yuma Kotake, Managing Director, NTT DOCOMO Ventures
- Ken Katsuyama, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Business, NTT, Inc.
- Yasunori Kinebuchi, Director and Head of Global Incubation, NTT, Inc.
- Reo Kusaka, Head of Global Business, NTT EAST
- Akie Iriyama, Professor, Waseda Business School
- Takeshi Ebihara, Founding General Partner, Rebright Partners
The three winners with the judges and the NTT team. Photo: NTT Startup Challenge.
About OmniCard
OmniCard is expense management with last-mile visibility on UPI and RuPay. Employees, branches and stores pay by company UPI ID or RuPay card, and company policy is checked before the money moves, not at month-end. Six AI agents check spend, read bills, flag duplicates and post every payment to the ERP.
OmniCard is run by Eroute Technologies Pvt. Ltd., an RBI-authorised Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) issuer and a direct NPCI issuer for RuPay cards, UPI (@omni) and FASTag, with no sponsor bank in between. See how our infrastructure works. More than 1,000 businesses run on OmniCard, from 700-store QSR chains to NBFCs with 5,000 branches.
OmniCard and NTT
The recognition builds on work OmniCard already does with the NTT Group in India: NTT DATA Payment Services India's Expense Management Solution runs on OmniCard's payment infrastructure. See our partner programme.
Sources
- Winners and photos: the NTT Startup Challenge on LinkedIn and Instagram (SatSure, Neurowyzr and OmniCard).
- 1,700+ startups in the 2026 programme: NTT Startup Challenge on LinkedIn.
- Programme, regions, Grand Final date and judges: ntt-startupchallenge.com.
