he past year has proven a transformative one for financial technology. Global venture funding into the fintech sector has declined sharply from the industry’s heyday in 2020 and 2021, and experts say the market is in a new normal, with valuations correcting from unsustainable highs.
In this climate, CNBC, together with market research firm Statista, has listed the top 250 fintech companies globally. The World’s Top Fintech Companies 2024 report includes companies both big and small, across a variety of different market categories.
Each segment table is unranked, and the companies are listed in alphabetical order. This year, CNBC also handpicked standout companies from each individual market segment for their newsworthiness. These CNBC “editor’s picks” are selected from the overall list, and the companies chosen hold no higher prominence than others in Statista’s objective, KPI-based analysis.
Despite struggles facing the sector, innovation is continuing to happen — with artificial intelligence a key theme this year. Fueled by technological advancements, expanding global markets, and collaborative leadership, companies are shaping the future of financial services.
Fintechs considered for the report included companies that nominated themselves via an application form published by CNBC, as well as analysis conducted by Statista.
This year’s report identified fintech companies spanning eight different categories. The list is based on analysis and weighting of overarching general KPIs and segment specific KPIs focused on the individual categories.
To determine the top 250 firms, a team of analysts at Statista carried out in-depth research into relevant KPIs for more than 2,000 eligible companies between March and May 2024.
In the consideration for the top list, overarching KPIs had a weight of 40%, while segment specific KPIs had a weight of 60% to derive a final score for their position on the list.
Alternate finance consists of digital platforms that offer companies and consumers a way to raise money online, using technologies like the cloud and AI algorithms.
The category includes crowdfunding platforms, which help businesses raise capital either by selling equity or offering rewards to supporters. Equity crowdfunding platforms are particularly popular with small, but fast-growing, companies.
It also includes non-bank lending institutions providing capital to businesses and platforms that facilitate personal loans funded by private or institutional investors via online platforms, as an alternative to traditional lending.
OakNorth is a digital bank from the U.K. that provides loans for entrepreneurs and personal savings accounts. The firm has a business clientele that makes between £1 million ($1.26 million) to £100 million of revenue. The nine-year-old startup grew pre-tax profits 23% in its 2023 financial year.
It also began lending in the U.S., where it has lent $200 million to businesses so far. OakNorth has also been tipped as a potential IPO candidate.
However, OakNorth’s CEO Rishi Khosla told CNBC in June that this is “not a priority.”
Companies in the digital banking solutions segment include banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platforms and open banking services. It also includes companies offering digital solutions for banks, such as core banking and optimization of capital management.
BaaS refers to the provision of banking software for non-financial firms by third parties — for instance, a retailer wanting to offer banking and payments services. Open banking refers to systems that let third-party developers access financial data from traditional banks.
The BaaS space was rattled this year by a controversial startup called Synapse’s bankruptcy and its dispute with banking partner, Evolve Bank & Trust, which left hundreds of thousands of customers of consumer-facing fintechs without access to their money.
Airwallex is a Singapore-based fintech company that aims to undercut Swift, the interbank messaging network. Airwallex offers virtual business accounts, cross-border payments, and corporate cards.
This year, the startup struck a multi-year deal with McLaren to become an official partner of the Formula One racing team that saw it offering treasury management, payouts, and settlements.
Airwallex, which is backed by China’s Tencent, has been met with intense IPO speculation. The startup’s CEO, Jack Zhang, said in January that his company plans to “get IPO ready in the next two years.”
Business process solutions are companies that offer finance-related and technology-based products and services that aim to assist businesses in enhancing and automating their processes and financial workflows.
This includes platforms that offer corporate cards and expensing tools, invoicing and accounting services, companies involved with payroll and hiring, and startups developing tools to help with fraud detection and financial compliance.
AI has been a hot area for firms in this category. Businesses are trying to figure out ways of using the technology to help them manage budgets more effectively. Companies in this segment are investing heavily in emerging systems, like generative AI, to help firms achieve financial targets.
Navan is a global corporate travel and expense management platform for businesses. It aims to provide a more user-friendly alternative to platforms such as SAP’s Concur expensing software.
Like other fintechs, Navan has been making moves into artificial intelligence. The company rolled out Ava, its own AI personal assistant, in May to help with customer queries and trip bookings.
The company is rumored to be targeting an IPO in April 2025. Ariel Cohen, Navan’s CEO and co-founder, told CNBC the business was “not far” from being ready for an IPO, but declined to set a timeframe.
The digital assets category considered companies that offer platforms and tools making it easier to access and use digital assets and blockchain-based applications, including cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
In-demand companies include firms that provide an “on-ramp” for people looking to buy crypto — a process that can be hard if you don’t know where to start. Another popular area is infrastructure that provides institutions a safe way of buying and securing digital assets.
The digital asset space was buoyed in 2024 by strong price movements in cryptocurrencies. As of June 2024, Bitcoin’s price has doubled in the last 12 months. Earlier this year, it reached a record high above $70,000 after approval of the first U.S. spot bitcoin ETF.
Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. by trading volumes, according to CoinGecko data. Founded just three years after bitcoin’s creation, the company today offers trading in multiple tokens for both retail and institutional customers.
Operating in more than 100 countries, the company has been on an international expansion march in the last year or so amid a heated legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
In October, Coinbase selected Ireland as its main “MiCA,” or Markets in Crypto-Assets, hub in the EU, seeking to get ahead of the implementation of new crypto regulations in the bloc.
For the second year in a row, payments is the largest individual segment, with 24% of fintechs listed falling into that category. Alternate finance and neobanking were the second and third-largest, accounting for 16% and 14% of the top fintechs, respectively.
Artificial intelligence is a common focus for many of the names selected this year. Klarna, for example, embraced AI with a chatbot it says can do the work of 700 full-time customer service jobs, while Mastercard made deep investments into AI-powered fraud detection tools.
In terms of the countries with the largest amount of top fintech firms overall, the United States ranks highest as the single-biggest market, with 116 of the companies located there. The U.S. is followed by the U.K., with 30 companies. In third place is India, which is home to 11 of the top fintech companies globally.
This year, India overtakes Germany and France in terms of market share for the world’s top fintechs, reflecting huge growth in digital adoption and the country’s challenge to China as a global economic powerhouse.
More than 50% of Indians used digital wallets to pay for online and in-store purchases last year, according to a report from Worldpay, and the country’s home-grown Unified Payments Interface (UPI) was one of the most popular transaction apps domestically.
Financial planning companies are firms that offer services which make it easier for consumers to manage their finances, set budgets and spending plans, compare products from different providers, or build up a credit history.
The segment includes providers of personal finance management software. These are companies that help people make sense of their incomings and outgoings by using data analysis tools and an easy-to-use interface.
It also contains financial comparison platforms, which connect users with a range of options for bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and other products, as well as tools that crawl users’ banking data to give them up-to-date credit scores.
ClearScore is a British startup that offers a platform to help people access their credit score and build up credit history. Its stated aim is to improve financial wellbeing through better use of financial data.
ClearScore originally agreed to be acquired by credit reference agency Experian in 2018. But this fell apart after an investigation from competition regulators.
Subsequently, ClearScore raised $200 million from Invus Opportunities, an equity investment fund, at a $700 million valuation. Since then, ClearScore has prioritized investments into its product and growth.
Neobanking refers to digital-only financial institutions, known as neobanks, which operate without physical branches. These firms, which provide services via mobile and desktop, gained steam after the global financial crisis.
Part of the first fintech wave, neobanks gained early hype thanks to a slick design, low-cost products and a digital-only approach which meant less overheads compared with brick-and-mortar locations. More than 460 challenger banks have launched since 2014, according to Statista data shared with CNBC.
In the last year or so, higher interest rates have helped neobanks start to make money from their users for the first time through increased interest income. According to Statista, neobanks made $650.28 billion in combined net interest income worldwide in 2023.
Nubank is a Brazilian neobank that offers credit cards and personal loans. David Velez, the firm’s CEO, founded the company after reportedly facing frustrations trying to open a bank account in Brazil.
In May, the company announced it had surpassed 100 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, making it Latin America’s fourth-biggest financial institution by user numbers. It is the first digital banking platform to reach this milestone outside of Asia.
The bank, which reported a debut profit of $1 billion in 2023, also deepened a push into travel this year, with a platform that lets users book flights and hotels as well as cross-border accounts.
The payments segment refers to companies that are in the business of making it smoother to facilitate payments, both online and in-store.
The category includes payment services and so-called gateways that act as intermediaries in electronic transactions, as well as solutions facilitating online purchases, point-of-sale transactions via mobile devices, and digital money transfers between individuals or companies.
The digital payments landscape is incredibly competitive and fragmented. This is evident from Statista’s analysis, which shows 24% of the top fintechs are payment players. Total transaction value in the payments market is projected to reach $11.6 trillion in 2024, according to Statista.
Alipay is one of the largest mobile payment platforms in the world, counting over 1.3 billion users worldwide. It is owned by Ant Group, a private Chinese tech giant valued at $78.4 billion as of last year.
In 2020, Ant was widely expected to go public in a record IPO, but this was suspended after its founder Jack Ma made comments critical of Chinese regulators. Ma relinquished control of Ant in January 2023.
Ant has boosted global expansion. Its international Alipay+ arm this year signed an expanded partnership with the UEFA Euro 2024 soccer championships, looking to boost its overseas footprint and help more than 400,000 retailers in Europe reach Chinese tourists.
Wealth technology is composed of companies shaping wealth management with technologies like AI and machine learning. This includes roboadvisors and neobrokers that offer trading, investments and portfolio management for retail clients.
Retail trading boomed in the Covid-19 years of 2020 and 2021. But in 2022 and 2023, a tough macroeconomic climate hit volumes. In 2024, activity is creeping up again, with over 100 million brokerage accounts now holding roughly $20 trillion of assets.
The return of “Roaring Kitty,” the man who drove GameStop mania in 2021, has driven wild price movements in so-called “meme stocks” this year. Firms like Reddit are taking the novel route of giving users the chance to buy into their IPOs.
Robinhood is one of the largest wealth technology platforms in the U.S. It offers users commission-free trading in a range of assets, including stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrencies.
In 2024, Robinhood began the year with a return to profitability, reporting net income of $157 million in the first quarter. That was up from a loss of $511 million in the first quarter of 2023.
Earlier this year, Robinhood launched its platform in the U.K. after two failed attempts at international expansion. The firm has sought to lure Brits with 24-hour trading and yields of up to 5% on deposits.
Applications form an integral part of the selection process as Statista evaluates firms to select for the list. Companies this year sent some key data points, including their 2023 revenues, year-on-year sales growth rate, and total headcount.