Finalists Announced in 2013 PYMNTS.com Innovator Awards Competition

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PYMNTS.com, the leading platform for news and content related to “what’s next” in payments innovation, released its list of finalists for the 2013 PYMNTS Innovator Awards. The finalists were chosen across fifteen categories by a panel of judges with deep and practical expertise in payments and payments innovation. Winners will be chosen by the PYMNTS.com community, and the top three finalists in each category will be given an award at the PYMNTS.com Innovator Awards Dinner held this year on March 21, 2013 at Annenberg Hall on the Harvard University Campus as part of The Innovation Project. B.J. Novak, writer, actor and producer of the award-winning comedy series, The Office, will serve as the Awards Dinner emcee. The Innovation Project 2013 is hosted by PYMNTS.com, the leading platform for news and content on “what’s next” in payments innovation and is dedicated to changing the way that the payments industry, thinks, creates and ignites innovation.

“We ended up with more than 500 submissions and it was really challenging to narrow such an outstanding field of nominees to the 70 or so that are now finalists”

The fifteen categories include the payments industry version of Oscar’s “best picture” Most Innovative and Most Disruptive. Nominees in the Most Innovative category include Adyen, American Express/Twitter Commerce, Monitise, PayPal and Walmart. Nominees in Most Disruptive category include Braintree, Discover Network, Dwolla, LevelUp and Square. The thirteen other categories include Best Technology, Best Prepaid, Best Credit, Best Debit, Best Cash, Best Check, Best POS, Best B2B, Best Small Business and Best Merchant Innovations, Best Newcomer, Most Invisible, and Best Comeback Story. Capital Access Network, LevelUp and Walmart all placed as finalists in more than one category. A complete list of all finalists by category with descriptions of their innovations can be found here.

“We ended up with more than 500 submissions and it was really challenging to narrow such an outstanding field of nominees to the 70 or so that are now finalists,” said Karen Webster, CEO of Market Platform Dynamics and President of PYMNTS.com. “The judges all remarked at how impressive this slate of nominees was this year. We congratulate the finalists for their part in creating and igniting the innovation that is reshaping the payments and commerce ecosystem as we know it and delivering such value to merchants and consumers – as well as to everyone who took the time to submit a nomination. But, now it is up the PYMNTS.com community to decide who gets with the top honors."

The 2013 PYMNTS.com Innovator Award Program Judges include: David Evans, author of Paying with Plastic and Founder of Market Platform Dynamics; Matt Harris, Managing Director, Bain Capital Ventures; Hans Morris, Managing Director, General Atlantic; Dan Rosen, Managing Partner, Commerce Ventures; Karen Webster, CEO Market Platform Dynamics and President of PYMNTS.com, and Matt Witheiler, Principal, Flybridge Partners.

Voting opened to the PYMNTS.com community on February 20, 2013 and closes on March 7th. To review and vote on this year’s finalists, please click here.

2013 PYMNTS Innovation Awards Finalists

Most Innovative

Best B2B Innovation

Best Credit

-- Adyen

-- Bottomline Technologies

-- Billfloat

-- American Express/Twitter Commerce

-- Kabbage

-- Credit Karma

-- Monitise

-- OB10

-- Lending Club

-- PayPal

-- Silicon Valley/Mineral Bank

-- Lendo

-- Walmart

-- Traxpay

-- Wage Bank/FlexWage

Most Disruptive

Best Debit Innovation

Best Merchant Innovation

-- Braintree

-- Green Dot Go Bank

-- Dunkin’ Donuts Mobile App

-- Discover Network

-- PatientPay

-- Home Depot POS

-- Dwolla

-- PerkStreet Financial

-- MCX

-- LevelUp

-- Simple

-- Starbucks Mobile App

-- Square

-- Walmart & American Express BlueBird

-- Wal-Mart Healthy Eats Prepaid Card

-- Waspit

Best Technology

Best Cash Innovation

Best Prepaid Innovation

-- First Data/Offerwise

-- ItsLikeCash

-- Marqeta

-- Merchant Warehouse/Genius

-- Loomis Safepoint

-- Pangea

-- MoCa/Harex

-- NetPro WiFi Cash Drawer

-- Seamless

-- OneID

-- PaynearMe

-- Western Union Stored Value Solutions

-- Voltage Security

-- Royal Canadian Mint Chip

Best Newcomer

Best Check Innovation

Best POS Innovation

-- LendUp

-- ING Check Secure

-- GoPago

-- Money Desktop

-- Mitek

-- Groupon

-- PayPerks

-- NCR ATM Check Imaging

-- LightSpeed

-- Stripe

-- VerifyValid

-- Revel Systems

-- Subtle Data

-- Zipmark

-- ShopKeep

Most Invisible

Best Comeback Story

Best Small Business

-- C-Sam

-- Bluesnap

-- Billing Orchard

-- Demyst Data

-- Capital Access Network

-- Capital Access Network/CapTap

-- FlowPay

-- E4X

-- Flint Mobile

-- Kount

-- Rapid

-- Intuit/Go Payment

-- IP Commerce

-- SCVNGR/LevelUp

-- PaySimple

About The Innovation Project

Over 2 days, 100 speakers and 500 senior members of the payments industry will change the way that the payments and its broader commerce ecosystem thinks, talks, delivers and ignites innovation. On March 20^th and 21^st the greatest minds in commerce and payments will assemble at Harvard University near Boston to kick the conversation about innovation up to an entirely different level at a program called The Innovation Project. Speakers and delegates are among the most senior executives and elite innovators from literally every established payments company worldwide, along with the CEOs of the most innovative start-ups in the space. One of its five modules includes pairing industry CEOs with external thought leaders such as Al Gore (former US VP), Steve Levitt (Freakonomics), Eric Reis (The Lean Start Up), Rosie Rios (US Treasurer), Russell Simmons (Rush Card), Raj Date (CFPB), and Josh Lerner (Architecture of Innovation) to challenge the conventional wisdom around what it will take to get merchants and consumers to adopt new ways to shop and pay. Warren Buffett is the program’s keynote. The Innovation Project also hosts the industry’s 2013 PYMNTS.com Innovator Awards, given to 15 of the industry’s top innovators over dinner, which this year will be emceed by B.J. Novak of The Office and will introduce delegates to 40 of the hottest “next generation” payments innovators.

About PYMNTS.com

PYMNTS.com is reinventing the way in which companies in payments share relevant information about the initiatives that shape the future of commerce and make news. This powerful B2B platform is the #1 site for the payments industry by traffic and the premier source of information about “what’s next” in payments. C-suite and VP level executives read it daily for these insights, making the PYMNTS.com audience the most valuable in the industry. It provides an interactive platform for companies to demonstrate thought It provides an interactive platform for companies to demonstrate thought leadership, popularize products and, most importantly, capture the mindshare of global decision-makers. It’s where the best minds and best content meet on the web.