Mastercard New Digital Doors® Marketing Hub Helps Small Businesses Accelerate Digitally; New Partners Bring Added Benefits to Daily Operations

Today, in celebration of Small Business Month, Mastercard announced the next evolution of its Digital Doors^® program launching May 4^th. Through added partnerships and a new Marketing Hub platform, the company is providing an expanded suite of innovative tools, resources and benefits to help small businesses digitally enhance their operations and growth.

According to Mastercard research, nearly half (47%) of small and medium businesses in the U.S. have a growth mindset [1]. While small businesses are in growth mode, 40% find they are still in the early days of learning as it relates to digital marketing capabilities [2] . Advancing its small business commitment, the company is launching the Mastercard Marketing Hub as a new service platform within Digital Doors to act as a catalyst for entrepreneurs to grow digital through a structured combination of educational content, offers and an exclusive tool to create marketing assets.

"As small businesses continue to evolve in today's digital age, Mastercard Digital Doors remains an innovative resource to help entrepreneurs enhance their digital marketing capabilities and grow their online presence," said Rustom Dastoor, EVP of Marketing and Communications, Mastercard North America. "We continue to work closely with our partners to understand small business owners' pain points and provide needs-based solutions that help unlock their creativity, how they engage with customers and ultimately accelerate business growth."

The Mastercard Digital Doors Marketing Hub will unlock resources to help small business owners market their business to recruit new customers and create meaningful touchpoints with existing customers, subject to offer terms:

• Ad Designer, Sponsored by Mastercard: a free-to-use online graphic design tool that helps small businesses build digital marketing content such as social posts, banner advertisements and more without any design experience. It includes a unique AI-based text generator for marketing copy inspiration.
• Hootsuite: 20% off on Hootsuite Business Plan or Hootsuite Enterprise Plan to help businesses reach their customers more efficiently across multiple social media platforms, improve their customer service and gain deeper analytics and consumer insights.
• Triple Whale: 20% off Triple Whale for life which helps manage analytics, attribution and creative for Shopify storefronts in one easy-to-use dashboard, giving real-time insights needed to grow a brand.
• Vizit: 50% off the annual subscription cost for the Vizit Visual Brand Performance Platform, which uses AI-based insights to help businesses identify the most effective advertising, website, and social media imagery for attracting and converting customers.
• YieldDay: Free 30-day trial and 30% off first month with 6-month agreement or first month free with 12-month agreement to YieldDay's technology platform that uses advanced machine-learning algorithms to carefully score and predict anonymous visitor data to make better audiences and reduce ad costs.

Available through Mastercard's Digital Doors program, small businesses will have access to new partner resources and exclusive benefits, subject to offer terms, including:

• Accion Opportunity Fund: From responsible capital via grants & loans, to free coaching and webinars, fuel your entrepreneurial journey with this financial support system for small business owners.
• FedEx: 40% off select FedEx Express^® shipping services and 20% off select FedEx Ground^® shipping services.
• Lendio: Small business lending platform with an online marketplace of 75+ lenders offering financing solutions, such as lines of credit, SBA loans and more.
• Markaaz: Complimentary one-month trial of Markaaz's business Dashboard helping small businesses improve their financial health and business operations by taking control of their publicly available business data.
• Pye: Self-order kiosks for retail and restaurants that save business owners time and money, ensure a consistent customer service experience, and free up existing employees for other roles/needs within the company.
• Stride Health: Simplifies health insurance by offering small businesses an end-to-end solution for shopping, enrollment and post-enrollment management.
• Talents ASCEND: 10% off on a Talents ASCEND membership or 20% if paying with a Mastercard to help employers quickly connect to candidates with the necessary skills.

Mastercard Digital Doors was originally launched in 2020 as an online business resource center during the pandemic, developed to provide small business owners the tools and resources they relied on to pivot to and sustain a digital business. Today, Mastercard Digital Doors continues to adapt and address the unique and current needs of small businesses with existing partners including HSB, Periculus Cyber, SimplyPayMe, and SumUp.

This latest introduction from Mastercard Digital Doors kicks off a month of educational and celebratory programming for small business owners. Informative webinars on a range of topics from Mastercard experts are currently available for signups here as well as a webinar in partnership with Hello Alice on the "Black Entrepreneurship on the Rise" is open here for registration. Additionally, MLB and Mastercard will be teaming up again this summer in support of its Home Team Advantage Small Business Contest, giving small business owners in select cities the chance to win a grant to their business, access to Mastercard's small business tools and a priceless baseball experience.

Mastercard Digital Doors builds on the company's global commitment to financial inclusion, pledging to bring a total of 1 billion people and 50 million micro and small businesses into the digital economy by 2025.

Joining in celebration of Small Business Month, the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS), and Mastercard announced the expansion of its Digital Doors partnership to raise awareness of cybersecurity protection for small businesses and steps they can take to protect their digital content from cyber-attacks. As part of the expanded partnership, Mastercard will make available free webinars to educate small businesses on cybersecurity threats and best practices to thrive online.

Hear From Partners

"As an organization that connects with businesses of all sizes every day, Hootsuite has had the privilege of learning from the brightest marketing minds in the business, and what we've found is that some of the most creative and gritty are small business owners. For them, social has become the great equalizer?where they can engage with their customers and build their brands," said Brad Wochomurka, VP Global Partners. "We appreciate the work Mastercard has done to bring together the resources that small businesses need most to adapt to a digital first strategy, and we are happy to partner with them."

"We've partnered with Mastercard for over three years. From Start Path to Digital Doors, we are thrilled to see this partnership grow to new heights", said Lendio Cofounder & CEO, Brock Blake. "We are so excited Mastercard has created this platform to help educated SMBs in our post-covid era. We feel Lendio will bring a ton of value to these SMBs as they grow, manage their business, and seek capital to fuel their dream."

"Small businesses need resources that help improve their financial health. The key is accurate and up-to-date business information that tells financial partners that this business is ready for growth. By joining the Markaaz Dashboard, Digital Doors business members can update, verify and monitor their business information all in one place, driving quick access to the right partners and resources, enabling them to thrive." ? Fabi Hubschmid, Co-Founder, Markaaz

"We're excited to partner with financial tech leader Mastercard and be part of the Digital Doors platform that enables us to help other small businesses succeed and thrive," said Jegil Dugger, Pye founder and CEO. "Pye's solutions are giving many small businesses an edge in addressing historic industry issues, such as rising costs and labor shortages, and positioning them to tackle challenges they may face in the future."

"Small businesses require resourcefulness and creative thinking from their team members. Talents ASCEND understands this. By bringing innovative AI technology to work for the masses, Talents ASCEND is Opening Doors to Employment alongside Mastercard with their Digital Doors program. It is an honor to partner with Mastercard as we are also committed to help small businesses be successful." ? Robyn Grable, CEO Talents ASCEND

"When running an ecommerce business, data accuracy and clarity is essential for profitable growth. Triple Whale is thrilled to partner with Mastercard Digital Doors, offering emerging digital brands access to best-in-class AI-powered data aggregation, analysis, and automation. As we like to say here at Triple Whale - scale it to the moon!" - Alexa Kilroy, Head of Brand, Triple Whale

"The Vizit platform is designed to help creatives and marketers get the most out of their imagery, without saddling them with drawn-out processes or complicated data," said Vizit CEO and Founder Jehan Hamedi. "We believe Vizit can be a huge asset to small businesses looking to make an impact on their bottom line, and we're thrilled to be a part of this Mastercard Digital Doors initiative."

[1] Mastercard proprietary Thought Leadership "Empowering Small and Mid-sized Business Growth by Unleashing Its Data," Feb 2022
[2] Mastercard SMB study for Digital Doors, July 2022

ABOUT MASTERCARD (NYSE: MA)

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

www.mastercard.com