---
id: "entity-org-mastercard-labs"
type: "entity"
entityType: "organization"
canonicalName: "Mastercard Labs"
aliases: ["Mastercard Labs (R&D)"]
source_timestamps: ["§ Translating among partners.", "¶19", "¶20"]
tags: ["innovation-lab", "corporate-innovation"]
related: ["entity-garry-lyons", "framework-dfv", "entity-ajay-banga", "action-executive-moat"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2026/03/why-great-innovations-fail-to-scale"
source_title: "Why Great Innovations Fail to Scale"
sources: ["futures"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-futures"
originDay: 2
articleStem: "hbr-nm-102-innovations-fail-to-scale"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/03/why-great-innovations-fail-to-scale"
sourceTitle: "Why Great Innovations Fail to Scale"
---
# Mastercard Labs

The **research and development / innovation arm of Mastercard**, founded to deliver breakthrough technologies. Under [[entity-garry-lyons|Garry Lyons]], it integrated emerging tech (cloud, blockchain, tokenization) into the core business, contributing to Mastercard's market-cap growth **from ~$6 billion to ~$390 billion** over Lyons' tenure. It is the case for the [[framework-three-functions-of-bridgers|translating]] function, the origin of the [[framework-dfv|DFV risk-assessment framework]], and the site of executive [[action-executive-moat|'air cover']] provided by then-CEO [[entity-ajay-banga|Ajay Banga]].

**Enrichment caveat:** the market-cap figure is directionally consistent with public financial data, but attributing all growth to Labs is an over-simplification — digital-payment macro trends, acquisitions, and pricing power also contributed.