LevelUp Wins Most Innovative, PayPal Takes Home Catalyst Award at IP 2014

By PYMNTS staff @pymnts

Brazilian payments processor Pagar.me won Best in Show at the PYMNTS Innovator Awards ceremony, held last night at Annenberg Hall on the campus of Harvard University, while PayPal took the Catalyst Award.

The event, on the final evening of Innovation Project 2014, is viewed as the most prestigious recognition awards in the payments industry.

Melissa D. Smith, president and CEO of Wex Inc., won the Woman Driving Innovation in Payments award, the first of its kind to be given at the Innovation Project awards ceremony.

LevelUp took the gold for Most Innovative Company, while the silver medal went to Upstart, and Klarna won bronze. The gold for Most Disruptive Innovation went to Bitcoin, while Chase won silver and Ripple Labs took bronze.

The gold medal for Best Comeback Story went to Google Wallet, while oti Wave won silver and Prosper took bronze.

Apple Touch ID won gold for Best New Technology, while silver went to Ripple Labs and bronze to OpenTable.

The Best Newcomer Award went to Coin, with Shopify taking silver and Chase the bronze in that category.

The gold medal for Most Invisible Company went to Paydiant, while IP Payments took silver and Early Warning won bronze.

Square Register took gold for Best POS Innovation, while Clover won silver and Shopify, bronze.

Best Small Business Innovation went to Fundbox, while the silver in that category went to Shopify and the bronze to FreshBooks. Best B2B Innovation was awarded to Bill.com, with Billtrust Invoice Central taking silver and Traxpay winning the bronze.

Incomm Cashtie won gold for Best Cash Innovation, while PayNearMe took silver and Paydiant MCA won bronze. Best Credit Innovation went to Credit Karma, with Lending Club taking the silver and Klarna the bronze.

Best Debit Innovation went to Square Cash, while Simple won the silver and T-Mobile Money took the bronze. Blackhawk won the gold for Best Prepaid Innovation, Dunkin Donuts Mobile App took silver and Mozido, the bronze.

Best Innovation via ACH went to Transmodus, while Venmo won silver and Mitek, bronze. And Best Check Innovation went to PaySimple eCheck, with the silver going to Venmo and the bronze to American Express/Bluebird.

Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, announced earlier, went to Frank McNamara, founder of Diners Club and widely credited with using the first (cardboard) credit card. Inductees into the Payments Hall of Fame included Arthur Hahn, inventor of the magnetic stripe; Robert W. Selander, president and CEO of MasterCard; and George Wallner, inventor of the modern POS terminal.