In an industry dominated by large and well established companies, awards presented at The Innovation Project of 2015 also gave recognition to startups and innovation focused on small business. PYMNTS.com, a leading source for commerce innovation news, hosted the event in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 19, gathering industry leaders, innovators and executives from the payments industry.
The innovation-focused event featured highly accomplished speakers and educational seminars concluded by honoring key innovators in the payments industry. Two out of sixteen different award categories honored small business. This included the “Best Newcomer” category in which the award went to: Fundbox, Forter and Zerve. The “Best Small Business Innovation” winners were: OnDeck, Fundbox + FreshBooks and PaySimple. After over 10,000 votes were counted for over 600 submissions, a panel of judges consisting of top experts in innovation chose winners in each of these categories, acknowledging three tiers of winners: Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
Fundbox, a technology company that focuses on helping smaller businesses recuperate from cash flow gaps, placed gold in the best newcomer category. The silver winner was Forter, a business geared towards providing top of the line fraud prevention measures. Zerve, a veteran startup who is starting to gain ground as they boast a large database of thousands of local activities and events around the country won the bronze award.
In the “Best Small Business Innovation” category, Fundbox was awarded for a second time, receiving the silver award for their partnership with FreshBooks, which provides a secure online service that turns unpaid invoices into cash. OnDeck, a technology company allowing small business loans to be issued based on the health of a business rather than your personal credit score took the gold. The bronze winner in this category was PaySimple, an online provider of small business merchant accounts, mobile & electronic payments and ACH processing services.
For listings and information on all of this year’s winners, visit http://www.pymnts.com/
