Guests at the last LendIt Fintech Industry Awards, 2019

Here are the LendIt Fintech 2021 Industry Awards finalists

On Tuesday, Dec. 21, LendIt fintech announced finalists for the 5th annual LendIt Fintech Industry Awards to celebrate the top fintech influencers and innovators across 14 categories. 

Though it was a calamitous year, it was record-breaking for the fintech industry. After an excellent year for valuations, IPOs, startups, and digital finance innovation, join LendIt in celebrating these finalists. The 2021 winners will be announced at the year-end award ceremony and Dinner on Feb. 8, 2022, in South Beach, Miami. Industry awards are a featured part of the Lendit Nexus Dealmakers conference.

In no particular order, the finalists are a cross-section of hundreds of applications submitted from Sept. 21, 2021, through Dec. 10. Categories and finalists include:

Fintech Innovator of the Year

This is the award for the company that demonstrated a strong culture of innovation in the past year, producing groundbreaking changes in the industry. This year’s Contenders show variety, from newly public neo banks, BNPL, lenders, and commerce ecosystem leaders. The main innovation referenced must have been made commercially available in the past 18 months, with a significant impact in the past year.

Finalists:

Nubank

Plaid

Affirm

Marqeta

Brighterion

Intuit

Executive of the Year

This award is given to the senior executive male or female who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, integrity, performance, and team-building within his or her company. Finalists are a non-exhaustive list of the many inspiring execs that do all this while at the same time contributing to the advancement of the industry.

Jennifer Tescher, CEO of Financial Health Network

Scott Sanborn, CEO Lending Club

Steve Smith, CEO of Finicity

Jason Wilk, CEO at Dave

Dave Girouard, CEO at Upstart

Prashant Fuloria, CEO at Fundbox

Fintech Woman of the Year

Like the top executive of the year category, but female fintech-focused: this award is given to the senior executive who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, integrity, performance, and a commitment to fostering gender diversity both within her company and in the industry at large.

Jo Ann Barefoot, CEO of AIR

Luvleen Sidhu, CEO BM Technologies

Wendy Cai-Lee, CEO of Piermont Bank

Rania Succar, SVP at Quickbooks Money

Stephany Kirkpatrick, CEO at Orum.io

Rochelle Gorey, CEO at SpringFour

Innovation in Digital Banking

As open banking, accessibility, and inclusivity become synonymous with the future of banking, this award goes toward the company that has demonstrated a strong culture of innovation, producing significant advances in digital banking technology in the past year.

Plaid

Nubank

Current

MX

Deserve

Narmi

Top Consumer Lending Platform

From BNPL, Small-dollar lending, and innovation like early payroll, consumer lending is as hot as ever. This award goes to the top consumer lending platform based on a combination of loan performance, volume, growth, product diversity, and innovation. 

Upstart

LendingClub

LendingPoint

Avant

Earnest

Caribou

Top Small Business Lending Platform

Especially during the pandemic, SMB lenders helped support small businesses while quarantines kept customers away. These top contenders, among many, kept the economy running through successful loan performance, volume, growth, product diversity, and innovation.

Credibly

Biz2Credit

SmartBiz Loans

Payability

Fundbox

Reliant

Top Real Estate Platform

At LendIt LatAm, Real Estate proved to be a significant fintech industry trend. This award goes to the top real estate platform based on a combination of loan performance, volume, growth, product diversity, and innovation.

LendInvest

PeerStreet

Sharestates

Point

Groundfloor

Kiavi (formerly LendingHome)

Emerging Lending Platform

It does not take an expert to know Online Lending has been a cornerstone of fintech since the beginning. These firms learn from the past and work toward the future; the award for a young company that demonstrates the greatest potential impact on the future of online lending.

Wisetack

PowerPay

QuickFi

SoLo Funds

Capchase

Grain

CryptoFin

A segment of fintech that ignited like wildfire this year, these finalists showed the best application of crypto technology in traditional finance. The winner of this award should demonstrate a vital bridge between traditional finance and crypto to encourage greater adoption.

Chainlink

Visa

Sila

Bitso

Figure

Cross River

Most Promising Partnership

In a year of endless consolidation and purchases, these partnerships symbolize that not every firm needs to buy out its competitor. This award goes to the company that has completed and publicly announced an innovative partnership in the fintech community.

New Energy Nexus & Rise, created by Barclays

Barclays and Anthemis Group

Ocrolus & Plaid

OakNorth & Old National Bank

TransUnion & Spring Labs

Finicity & Tomo Credit

Top Service Provider

Where would fintech be without the helping hands of experts? This award is presented to the service provider, law firms, accountants, trusts, etc., that has demonstrated deep expertise, unique value, strong ROI, commitment to clients, and the fostering of a deeper understanding of fintech.

Deloitte 

Klaros Group

Manatt

Millennium Trust

Dechert LLP

Goal Solutions

Top Technology Service provider

Without background infrastructure, fintech is nothing. This award goes to the technology company with the greatest impact on the fintech market.

LoanPro

Amount

Equifax

Galileo Financial Technologies

Ocrolus

Prove

Excellence in Financial Inclusion

As the speakers at LendIt LatAm showcased, Financial Inclusion can be synonymous with success: succeed together or fail apart. This award goes to the company that has made the biggest difference in expanding access to financial services in new and innovative ways.

Experian

OppFi

Oportun

Tricolor

GoHenry

Lili

Emerging Fintech Company

New for 2022, this is awarded to the most promising young fintech company in any vertical. Contenders are young, scrappy, and hungry companies with a real possibility of becoming a leader in their category in the years to come.

ForwardAI

Kafene

Instnt

Atomic

TabaPay

Percent

The winners will be announced during awards season, as the finale of the LendIt Nexus summit in South Beach. Reserve a seat for Industry Awards and the two-day networking-only event Feb. 7-8.

  • Kevin Travers

    Intensely energetic news reporter asking questions covering the collision between Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and everywhere in-between. Studied history at the University of Delaware, learned to write at the Review, and debanked.