B2B Wins Big at the 2015 PYMNTS Innovator Awards

The PYMNTS.com Innovation Project 2015 has officially concluded, but the show didn’t wrap up without first paying some much-deserved recognition to several of the most innovative, disruptive and pioneering payments companies out there. Among the firms honored with a 2015 PYMNTS Innovation Award last week were several B2B payments companies that are combating B2B’s reputation as a technology-phobic, outdated industry.

More than 80 finalists competed for their chance to secure an award, and with a record-breaking number of voters this year, the 2015 PYMNTS Innovation Awards have certainly highlighted the B2B innovators worth keeping an eye on.

Payments technology firm AribaPay brought home the gold – twice – for its B2B payments innovation. The firm scored Gold in Best B2B Innovation and Gold in the category of Most Disruptive Company.

“Technology has revolutionized consumer payments and we are pleased that AribaPay has been recognized for its efforts to drive similar transformation in the business world,” Drew Hofler, Ariba’s Manage Cash Solutions Marketing Director, said in a statement. “By digitizing the ‘pay’ in procure-to-pay, AribaPay enables companies to streamline their billing and settlement processes and effectively change the game when it comes to B2B payments.”

AribaPay was honored for its B2B payments solutions offered through the Ariba Network, which uses Discover Financial Services’ global payments infrastructure and cloud technology to offer high-tech, secure digital payment services to businesses across the globe.

Coming in close behind AribaPay was Payoneer, which scored Silver in the category of Best B2B Innovation. The firm overcomes the barriers of cross-border payments through facilitating transactions for some of the world’s largest corporations, including Google and Airbnb. As B2B commerce becomes more digitized and globalized, firms like Payoneer will be crucial to international business. In fact, the company operates in 200 markets around the globe, and in response, translates its blog into eight different languages.

Rounding out the Best B2B Innovation award winners is Billtrust, a company that has played a key role in pushing the adoption of electronic and digital invoicing and payments technology among B2B companies. The firm recently released the findings of its study that found this push to be working: according to Billtrust research, 75 percent of businesses plan to adopt e-invoicing and e-payment methods over the next 12 months.

In the category of Best Small Business Innovation, OnDeck’s efforts in securing working capital for small businesses secured the company first place. The rise of alternative lending across the globe, especially in the wake of the financial crisis, is impossible to ignore. OnDeck’s $200 million IPO last December set the stage for the success of alternative financers. When news of the offering broke, OnDeck CEO Noah Breslow cited research that found OnDeck’s first $1 billion in financing resulted in $3.4 billion worth of business activity, as well as the creation of 22,000 jobs.

But Best Small Business Innovation second-place winner Fundbox has been making its own waves among investors as of late. The startup, which focuses on financing outstanding invoices to ensure suppliers can manage their cash flow as they wait to get paid, revealed just last week that it had secured $40 million in venture capital funding. That money, Fundbox said, will be used to boost the amount of financing the company pays to cover invoices. Its CEO Eyal Shinar also announced that the company has been experiencing 300 percent quarter-over-quarter growth in the last 18 months, a true testament to the rising impact of alternative small business financers. It’s no wonder the business also secured first-place in the category of Best Newcomer this year.

Fundbox tied for Silver with FreshBooks, which nabbed $30 million in funding last summer to expand its cloud accounting service. The corporation first began when CEO and co-founder Mike McDerment accidentally saved over an invoice, losing his work, and realizing how cloud technology can benefit small businesses to send, receive, record and settle invoices. PaySimple nabbed third place in the Best Small Business Innovation category thanks to its contribution to the B2B Software-as-a-Service space. The firm allows companies to accept credit card and electronic check payments on a mobile device, manage customer relations, and store, secure and analyze Big Data flowing in through the software.