Fintechs have changed the way people shop, invest, and bank. Innovative startups in this space are not just digitizing financial activities, but also using new technology to make them more efficient, accessible, and secure.
Despite a slowdown in tech investment across the board, investors pumped $75B into fintechs in 2022, a 52% increase on 2020.
Promising new fintech startups are continuing to emerge and flourish, disrupting traditional financial services, and solving problems for businesses and consumers.
The best fintechs in Web3
Web3 incorporates blockchain-based financial products, like cryptocurrencies and NFTs, and new ways of managing transactions, including DeFi (decentralized finance) and smart contracts.
Startups in this space represent an alternative to traditional financial systems. Web3 tech has also created a set of new challenges relating to regulation, tax, and accounting, and companies are springing up to address these issues.
1. OpenSea
Location: New York, New York
Founders: Devin Finzer, Alex Atallah
OpenSea remains the dominant NFT marketplace with more than 1.5m accounts. The company processes around $3B in transactions per month.
2. Ava Labs
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Founders: Emin Gün Sirer, Kevin Sekniqi, Ted Yin
Ava Labs is the creator of Avalanche, a blockchain platform that provides one of the highest transaction speeds in the market. More than 500 finance apps were built on the platform in the year to June 2022.
3. Chainalysis
Location: New York, New York
Founders: Jan Moller, Jonathan Levin, Michael Gronager
Cryptocurrency-based crime is on the rise — with the equivalent of $14B being received by illicit accounts in 2021. Chainalysis is a crypto sleuthing and compliance company, which helps governments, banks, and businesses to monitor and investigate crypto financial crimes.
4. Fireblocks
Location: New York, New York
Founders: Idan Ofrat, Michael Shaulov, Pavel Berengoltz
Fireblocks is a blockchain security service that focuses on ensuring the safety of digital assets while they are in transit — for example, between a crypto exchange and a virtual wallet.
5. Circle
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Founders: Jeremy Allaire, Sean Neville
Circle helps businesses move funds internationally using digital currency. They also help businesses manage digital assets and build Web3 services.
6. Coinflip
Location: Skokie, Illinois
Founders: Ben Weiss, Daniel Polotsky, Kris Dayrit, Alan Gurevich
Coinflip operates the world’s largest network of cryptocurrency ATMs, which allow customers to buy and sell crypto using cash. The company recently opened a Crypto Experience Center where visitors can learn about crypto and get help setting up a crypto portfolio.
They’ve also launched CoinFlip Ventures — an initiative to invest in and support Web3 start-ups — and are developing a web and mobile financial services platform that integrates with their ATMs.
7. BlockFi
Location: Jersey City, New Jersey
Founders: Flori Marquez, Zac Prince
BlockFi is a non-bank lender that offers crypto-backed loans and interest-bearing crypto accounts.
8. TaxBit
Location: Draper, Utah
Founders: Austin Woodward, Bobby Clayson, Brandon Woodward, Justin Woodward
TaxBit is a cryptocurrency tax and accounting software that automates tax calculations.
The best payment fintechs
With 41% of Americans going cashless and ecommerce representing 22% of all sales, online and point-of-sale payment solutions are more important than ever.
Cross-border payments are also estimated to grow from almost $150T in 2017 to over $250T by 2027.
Payment fintechs are facilitating these trends and providing solutions for businesses and consumers.
9. Klarna
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Founders: Niklas Adalberth, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Victor Jacobsson
Klarna is an ecommerce payment solution that allows customers to pay for retail products in installments. The company has 34m users in the US; 80% of German adults use Klarna every year. While Klarna reported major losses in 2022, the company has continued to show strong growth.
10. Chipper Cash
Location: San Francisco, California
Founders: Ham Serunjogi, Maijid Moujaled
Chipper Cash facilitates mobile, cross-border money services in five African countries and the US and UK. The company has more than 5m users and is valued at over $2B.
11. Stripe
Location: San Francisco, California
Founders: John Collison, Patrick Collison
Stripe provides tools that allow companies to accept and make online and point-of-sale (credit card and mobile) payments, issue invoices, and block fraud. Its customers include small startups as well as giants like Facebook.
12. Stax
Location: Orlando, Florida
Founders: Jacques Fu, Sal Rehmetullah, Suneera Madhani
Stax is a payment processing company that services online and in-store transactions. The company has processed $23B in payments and promises to save users up to 40% on payment processing costs.
13. GoCardless
Location: London, England
Founders: Hiroki Takeuchi, Matt Robinson, Tom Blomfield
GoCardless allows companies to collect one-off or automated recurring payments from their customers via direct debit so they don’t have to chase overdue payments.
14. Settle
Location: San Francisco, California
Founder: Aleksander Koenig
Settle is a platform that automates B2B payments and helps companies manage their cash flow.
15. Melio
Location: New York, New York
Founders: Ilan Atias, Matan Bar, Ziv Paz
Melio is a platform that helps businesses pay bills online. Their offering includes payment automation, international payments, and the ability to split bills into multiple payments or payment methods.
16. SumUp
Location: London, England
Founders: Jan Deepen, Marc-Alexander Christ, Petter Made, Stefan Jeschonnek
SumUp provides low-cost card readers that sync with a smartphone so businesses can accept credit card payments anywhere.
According to Luke Beavon, CFO of SumUp Payments UK, one way that the company stays up to date with merchant needs is by encouraging senior executives to spend time working amongst the customer service team.
The best fintechs in banking
In 2021, 15m accounts were opened with digital-only banking services (AKA neobanks) in the US. Pundits expect that the percentage of Americans with a neobank account will reach almost 50% by 2026.
Digital-first banks are competing by offering a range of services that make banking simpler, cheaper, and faster.
17. Chime
Location: San Francisco, California
Founders: Chris Britt, Ryan King
Chime is estimated to have 21.6m account holders — more than any other neobank in the US. The mobile-first service offers a zero-interest credit card, fee-free overdraft, and the option to get your paycheck early.
18. Monzo
Location: London, England
Founders: Gary Dolman, Jason Bates, Jonas Huckestein, Paul Rippon, Tom Blomfield
Monzo is the UK’s biggest neobank, with an estimated 6.6m account holders. Known for their signature metal bank card, Monzo allows users to create an account in under 15 minutes and offers mobile budgeting and savings tools as well as a Buy Now, Pay Later feature.
19. Brex
Location: San Francisco, California
Founders: Henrique Dubugras, Pedro Franceschi
Brex describes itself as an all-in-one finance tool for growing businesses. The company started out offering corporate credit cards. Now it helps users manage everything from expense reimbursements to investor funds.
20. Airwallex
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Founders: Jack Zhang, Xijing Dai, Lucy Liu, Max Li
Airwallex is a cross-border banking platform that offers domestic and global business accounts, multicurrency company cards, and expense management solutions. Their focus is on helping companies globalize their business. Their services also include high-speed international payments.
21. Greenlight
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Founders: Johnson Cook, Timothy Sheehan
Greenlight is a banking app for kids and teenagers. Users can receive direct deposits from their parents for doing chores, learn to invest, and develop saving habits early on.
22. Monese
Location: London, England
Founder: Norris Koppel
Monese offers mobile-first multicurrency accounts for European consumers and businesses. Users can open an account instantly without credit checks or proof of address, build credit, and access insurance products. The company boasts more than 2m customers in 31 countries.
23. Greenwood Bank
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Founders: Andrew Young, Michael Render, Ryan Glover
Greenwood Bank is a digital banking platform for Black and Latinx consumers and business owners. It aims to help build generational wealth and give back to communities.
24. Ecolytiq
Location: Berlin, Germany
Founders: David Lais, Frederic Westerberg, Friedrich Hubel, Mirko Kämpf, Richard Malley, Ulrich Pietsch
Ecolytiq is a sustainable banking solution that calculates the environmental impact of individual transactions so that banks can help consumers make environmentally friendly decisions. They also give users the choice to offset their carbon footprint.
The best fintechs in personal spend management
According to a survey, 60% of people don’t know how much they spent last month. Startups are developing mobile apps to help consumers stay on top of expenses and reach their financial goals.
25. Brigit
Location: New York, New York
Founders: Hamel Kothari, Len Kunin, Zuben Mathews
Brigit helps users understand their credit, manage their spending habits, and avoid overdraft fees by keeping on top of upcoming bills. They claim to help members save an average of $344 a year.
26. Propel
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Founders: Jimmy Chen
Propel’s goal is to create financial software for low-income Americans. According to founder and CEO Jimmy Chen, “existing banking products are often not designed for the specific needs of this [type of] customer.”
Propel’s mobile app allows over 5m users to track their food stamps and government benefits without having to call a 1-800 number or visit a government website. It also alerts them to job postings and changes in benefits policy.
27. Plum Fintech
Location: London, England
Founders: Alex Michael, Victor Trokoudes
Plum Fintech is a personal finance app that automates saving and investing. Users can also manage their spending with a prepaid spending card and create “pockets” for different spending goals.
28. Rocket Money
Location: Silver Spring, Maryland
Founders: Idris Mokhtarzada, Yahya Mokhtarzada, Haroon Mokhtarzada
Three-quarters of consumers waste $50+/per month on subscriptions they don’t want. Rocket Money helps users manage their subscriptions and lower their bills.
The best fintechs in online lending
Applying for a loan or a credit card used to mean going down to the bank and waiting days for an approval. Lending fintechs are moving that process online and cutting down the process to hours or minutes.
Fintechs are also coming up with innovative ways to make credit more accessible to a diverse range of people and businesses.
29. CommLoan
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
Founder: Mitch Ginsberg
CommLoan offers a real-estate lending platform where customers can fill out one loan application and receive information and loan consulting about all of the options that could work for them.
To-date, CommLoan has processed more than $2 billion in loans and partnered with more than 750 lenders that earn business from its platform.
30. Billie
Location: Berlin, Germany
Founders: Aiga Senftleben, Artem Demchenkov, Christian Grobe, Julian Koster, Matthias Knecht, Michael Hartmann
The startup is focused on B2B Buy Now, Pay Later services. The company offers deferred payment solutions for small online merchants.
31. Nibble Health
Location: New York, New York
Founders: Steven Greene, Phil Markunas
Nibble Health provides a line of credit for employees to pay for health care expenses in installments. The company started private beta testing in November 2022.
32. Petal
Location: New York, New York
Founders: Andrew Endicott, David Ehrich, Jack Arenas, Jason Gross
Petal is an alternative credit card company that looks beyond customers’ credit score by using machine learning to analyze their full digital financial record, including cash flow.
33. Prosper Marketplace
Location: San Francisco, California
Founders: Chris Larsen, John Witchel
Prosper Marketplace is a peer-to-peer lending marketplace that offers personal loans, credit cards, and home equity. The company has over 150k customers.
34. Tala
Location: Santa Monica, California
Founder: Shivani Siroya
Tala is a mobile-based lender that offers micro loans to consumers and small business owners in emerging markets like Kenya and the Philippines. The company lends $70m a month and has 1.5m monthly active users.
35. GoodLeap
Location: San Francisco, California
Founder: Hayes Barnard
GoodLeap is a point-of-sale platform that provides consumers with flexible payment options for sustainable home upgrades like solar panels and energy-efficient windows.
36. Wayflyer
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Founders: Aidan Corbett, Jack Pierse
Wayflyer provides fast capital to ecommerce businesses based on their financial and marketing performance. The company’s average monthly loan output reached $100m in February 2022.
37. Morty
Location: New York, New York
Founders: Adam Rothblatt, Brian Faux, Nora Apsel
Morty is an online mortgage marketplace that aims to increase access to home financing and streamline the mortgage shopping process.
38. Divvy Homes
Location: San Francisco, California
Founders: Adena Hefets, Alex Klarfeld, Brian Ma, Nicholas Clark
Divvy Homes is a tech-enabled real estate platform that buys consumers’ choice of home and rents it to them until they are able to buy it themselves.
39. Lev
Location: New York, New York
Founders: Sammy Greenwall, Yaakov Zar
The Lev Marketplace connects commercial real estate investors with suitable lenders in minutes. The platform also provides tools that digitize the process of putting together a deal so that lenders and borrowers can better organize their documents, easily access all the details of a transaction, and close deals more quickly. The company has closed over $1.6B in loans.
The best investment fintechs
Online DIY investing has been booming, as younger generations increasingly opt to control their money from their phones.
Bigger institutional investors are enjoying the benefits of fintech innovation too, with digital solutions that are changing things behind the scenes.
40. Robinhood
Location: Menlo Park, California
Founders: Baiju Bhatt, Vlad Tenev
Robinhood is a stock brokerage that allows consumers to buy and sell stocks, cryptocurrencies and other financial products with zero commission. The app has 13m active users.
41. Betterment
Location: New York, New York
Founders: Eli Broverman, Jon Stein
Betterment offers app-based, automated investing for consumers. Users can start investing with as little as $10.
42. Acorns
Location: Irvine, California
Founders: Jeff Cruttenden, Walter Cruttenden
Acorns allows consumers to round up purchases and automatically invest the difference.
43. Tegus
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Founders: Michael Elnick, Thomas Elnick
Tegus is a leading market intelligence platform that gives investors access to searchable expert calls and interview transcripts, as well as tools that analyze public financial information.
44. Drivewealth
Location: Jersey City, New Jersey
Founders: Robert Cortright
Drivewealth’s software allows fintech companies to embed investing tools in their own apps. Their customers include Revolut and MoneyLion.
45. Addepar
Location: Mountain View, California
Founders: Jason Mirra, Joe Lonsdale
Addepar offers cloud-based software that helps wealth, investment, and asset management firms manage their clients’ portfolios.
46. Trumid
Location: New York, New York
Founder: Ronnie Mateo
Trumid is a data and software solution for professional corporate debt traders.
47. Carta
Location: San Francisco, California
Founders: Henry War, Manu Kumar
Carta offers software that helps investors track their portfolios, helps founders fundraise, and helps businesses issue employee equity.
The best insurance fintechs
Buying and claiming insurance is usually a headache — and insurtech startups are working to improve on that experience.
They’re starting to make waves — 74% of insurance companies see fintech innovation as a threat. Insurtech companies raised $14.4B in investment in 2021 — an 87% increase on the previous year.
48. Zego
Location: London, England
Founders: Harry Franks, Sten Saar
Zego offers motor insurance for fleets, self-employed drivers, and e-scooter and e-bike riders. Their unique selling points are flexibility, an easy online platform, and discounts for safe driving. It has raised $281.7m.
49. Wefox
Location: Berlin, Germany
Founders: Dario Fazlic, Fabian Wesemann, Julian Teicke
Wefox is a digital personal insurance company focused on simplifying the insurance-buying process.
50. Coalition
Location: San Francisco, California
Founders: John Hering, Joshua Motta
Coalition is an industry leader in cyber risk insurance for small- and medium-sized businesses.
51. Newfront
Location: San Francisco, California
Founders: Gordon Wintrob, Spike Lipkin
Newfront is a business insurance brokerage that uses technology to modernize the process of buying and managing your insurance.
52. Kin
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Founders: Lucas Ward, Sean Harper, Sebastian Villarreal
Kin is a home insurance company for coastal and catastrophe-prone areas. It uses artificial intelligence to predict the damage caused by adverse weather, so they can help customers quickly when it happens.
53. Next Insurance
Location: Palo Alto, California
Founders: Alon Huri, Guy Goldstein, Nissim Tapiro
Next Insurance is an online-based insurance company that provides coverage to small businesses. The company uses artificial intelligence to speed up applications and claims.
54. Marshmallow
Location: London, England
Founders: Alexander Kent-Braham, David Goaté, Oliver Kent-Braham
Marshmallow uses technology to more affordably prevent fraud so they can offer car and van insurance for less. They provide insurance quotes in under five minutes, 24/7 support, and the ability to edit your policy online.
55. ManyPets
Location: London, England
Founders: Guy Farley, Steven Mendel
ManyPets was the first pet insurer in the UK to offer online claims. Their offering includes free vet video calls.
56. Policygenius
Location: New York, New York
Founders: Francois de Lame, Jennifer Fitzgerald
There are several insurtech companies offering tech-enabled insurance brokerage. Policygenius is one of the few that helps customers buy life, home, and auto insurance in one place.
57. The Zebra
Location: Austin, Texas
Founders: Adam Lyons, Joshua Dziabiak
The Zebra is an online insurance comparison marketplace that allows consumers to get a quote from major insurers quickly while only entering their information once.
58. The Guarantors
Location: New York, New York
Founders: Bob Schmidt, Clement Miglietti, Julien Bonneville
The Guarantors offer online-based insurance for the residential rental market by acting effectively as the co-signer for renters.
59. Alan
Location: Paris, France
Founders: Charles Gorintin, Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve
The health insurance company allows businesses to sign up online and get their team covered in minutes. Coverage can then be managed by an online dashboard.
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