Mastercard Wins First Place in Global 2020 Corporate Startup Stars Awards, Start Path Named World’s Best Accelerator
December 15, 2020 | Purchase, NYMastercard has won first place in the 2020 global Corporate Startup Stars Awards and its Start Path startup engagement program has been recognized as the World’s Best Corporate Accelerator. The prestigious prize is a partnership between the innovation advisory firm Mind the Bridge and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
The awards, announced today at a virtual ceremony hosted by Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, recognizes the world’s most active corporations working with startups and best practices in corporate-startup collaboration. Mastercard earned recognition for the advancement of its Start Path program, helping fintech innovators around the world scale their business and deliver transformative solutions.
“We’re honored to have been chosen as the world champion in startup-corporate collaboration by the Corporate Startup Stars Awards, recognizing our history of driving innovation with fintechs to scale ideas that bring more people into the digital economy,” said Ken Moore, Chief Innovation Officer at Mastercard. “As a partner of choice for fintechs globally, Mastercard embraces the opportunity to collaborate with emerging fintech players to accelerate innovation and shape the future of commerce.”
Through the Start Path program, startups have an opportunity to connect with partners in Mastercard’s global ecosystem of banks and merchants as well as technology and digital players. With more than 250 startups in the network since its founding in 2014, Start Path companies have gone on to raise more than $3 billion in post-program capital.
Mastercard would like to extend congratulations to all of the companies from around the world who have been recognized by the Corporate Startup Stars and Corporate Startup Accelerator Awards to drive innovation across industries. Visit the Corporate Startups Stars website to learn more about these trailblazing companies.
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Corporate Startup Stars Methodology
This year, Mind the Bridge and the International Chamber of Commerce consolidated a partnership at a global level in order to gather applications from all over the world, and to stimulate the growth of corporate-startup collaboration globally, by showcasing success stories and awarding the best-in-class, thus stimulating a virtuous cycle where every actor positively influences the others. Startups have also been asked through a public call to nominate the corporates that are more active and friendly in working with startups. Nominated corporates are then invited to apply for the Corporate Startup Stars Awards by providing detailed information and references regarding their open innovation organisation (such as innovation strategy, structure, processes and culture), activities (such as scouting, accelerators, procurement from startups, investment, acquisitions) and results achieved. Corporates identified through secondary research were also invited. The ranking includes only the companies that applied to the Corporate Startup Stars Awards by providing all the required information.
Mind the Bridge
Mind the Bridge is a global organization that provides innovation advisory services for corporates and government organizations. With HQs in San Francisco and offices in Barcelona, London, Milan, Berlin, Los Angeles and Seoul, Mind the Bridge has been working as an international bridge at the intersection between Startups and Corporates since 2007.
Mind the Bridge scouts, filters, and works with 5,000+ startups a year supporting global corporations in their innovation quest with open innovation initiatives that translate into curated deals with startups (licensing, investments, and/or acquisitions). It also provides advisory services and benchmarking on innovation strategy and structure. https://mindthebridge.com/| @mindthebridge
About the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is the institutional representative of more than 45 million companies in over 100 countries. ICC’s core mission is to make business work for everyone, every day, everywhere. Through a unique mix of advocacy, solutions and standard setting, we promote international trade, responsible business conduct and a global approach to regulation, in addition to providing market-leading dispute resolution services. Our members include many of the world’s leading companies, SMEs, business associations and local chambers of commerce.
For more info: @iccwbo
About Mastercard
Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re building a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential.
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