Visa's Jeni Mundy: Digitizing will help small businesses "thrive" after COVID

Digitalization helped small businesses survive through the pandemic. Now, it'll make them "thrive," according to Jeni Mundy, Visa's global SVP for Merchant Sales & Acquiring.

She's upbeat about the future. "Small businesses are feeling optimistic ... so [there are] reasons to feel positive," Mundy says during a livestream conversation on small businesses and pandemic recovery hosted by GZERO Media in partnership with Visa.

Her company, she explains, has been keeping track of this sentiment over the past two years, and the polling shows things are going in the right direction. Visa's recent findings show that 90% of small businesses in nine different markets around the world were optimistic about the future. Even at the beginning of the pandemic three-quarters of them felt the same way.

Also, Mundy says that small businesses are increasingly searching for the tools to be able to operate in the digital age. In developing countries, this means not asking governments for direct support but rather better internet or payments systems in order to connect to digital marketplaces.

Watch more: How can small businesses thrive after COVID?