How Mastercard Builds Innovation That Actually Ships, with Maja Lapcevic, Senior Vice President, Martech, Innovation and Commercialization

What does real corporate innovation look like inside a global financial services giant?In this episode of Beyond the Core, we sit down with Maja Lapcevic, Senior Vice President, Martech, Innovation and Commercialization at Mastercard, and formerly led innovation management and helped architectthe Mastercard Foundry—a world-class innovation engine that actually ships and scales new ventures.We cover:Why speed starts in the back office—and how Mastercard shrank pilot timelinesHow they measure and kill “zombie projects” with ruthless clarityThe tools they use to track materiality, velocity, and quality across their portfolioWhy co-development with business units (not innovation theater) drives commercial winsWhat startups really want from corporate partners—and how Mastercard protects customer trustHow to earn internal credibility by helping business units win fastTheir $50M+ benchmark for new growth bets—and how they test before they buildIf you’re navigating innovation inside a large organization, or partnering with one, this episode is packed with tactical lessons.Subscribe for weekly episodes on corporate venture building, innovation strategy, and scaling new ideas beyond the core.📍 Timestamps00:00 – Intro & Maja’s current role at Mastercard02:00 – How Mastercard balances brand + product innovation03:50 – Working with startups through Start Path06:00 – What agentic commerce means (and why it matters)09:10 – How Mastercard measures pilots—and kills zombie projects13:00 – Mastercard’s innovation structure: why it works16:00 – The Horizon 3 fund and what it’s designed to do22:30 – What startups ask for most: data or distribution?28:00 – Advice for startup founders pitching big corporates30:00 – The $50M test: how Mastercard validates growth bets34:50 – A favorite project: Mastercard Move Commercial Payments for B2B payments39:00 – Building trust with business units43:00 – Why internal alignment beats siloed innovation48:00 – Maja’s hot take on innovation theater—and what’s changed

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