A South African based fintech company features on a global list of companies seen to be transforming the financial services industry – from digital payments and lending, to insurtech, to neo-banking.
The 2018 Fintech100 – a collaboration between fintech investment firm H2 Ventures and KPMG – includes the ‘Leading 50’ fintech firms around the globe, ranked based on innovation, capital raising activity, size and reach; and the ‘Emerging 50’, exciting new fintechs that are at the forefront of innovative technologies and practices and are often pursuing new business models.
Chinese fintechs continue to dominate the top of the list, accounting for three of the top five places on the Leading 50 list with Ant Financial in first, JD Finance second and Baidu fourth; Singapore’s Grab was a new entry, taking third place, and US fintech Sofi moved up to fifth place.
Global competition continues to expand, with 36 different countries represented in the full Fintech100, up from 29 in 2017 and 22 countries in 2016.
Almost half of the companies on this year’s list (41) were founded and continue to operate in emerging markets.
The US tops the Fintech100 with 18 fintechs placed, including three of the top 10, followed by the UK with 12 and China with 11. Australia and Singapore place strongly with 7 and 6 fintechs respectively.
Payments companies dominate the Fintech100, with 34 in total, followed by 22 in lending, 14 in wealth management and 12 in insurance.
“Notable this year is the emergence of neo banks, with 10 on the list – which is the beginning of what we believe will be accelerated growth of digital banking models globally,” said Ian Pollari, global co-lead of KPMG Fintech.
The companies on the 2018 list have raised over US$52 billion in venture capital, more than double the total of last year’s list, and more than US$27 billion of capital in the past 12 months, a 366% increase over last year, noted Ben Heap, founding partner at H2 Ventures.
In terms of major funding rounds, 26 companies on the Fintech100 have each raised US$100 million in the last twelve months. The first four companies in the Leading 50 have all raised over US$1 billion in the last 12 months alone, he said.
The top 10 companies in 2018 Fintech100:
- Ant Financial (China)
- JD Finance (China)
- Grab (Singapore)
- Baidu (Du Xiaoman Financial) (China)
- Sofi (US)
- Oscar Health (US)
- Nubank (Brazil)
- Robinhood (US)
- Atom Bank (UK)
- Lufax (China)
The Fintech100 were selected following extensive global research and analysis based on data relating to five factors. Two criteria are related to capital raising reflecting the emphasis that venture capitalist investors place on the ability of firms to innovate in order to generate a long term sustainable competitive advantage.
- Total capital raised;
- Rate of capital raising;
- Geographic diversity;
- Sector diversity;
- X-factor: degree of product, service and business model innovation.
A single South African company features on the 100 list – ThisIsMe, which aims to bring trust into transactions through proprietary, true identification technology. Started in 2013, the platform enables businesses to reduce fraud, automate KYC checks, improve on-boarding and increase revenue while providing an on-demand, seamless customer experience, the report said.
“ThisIsMe holds the record for the fastest FICA verification at three minutes. The company uses an array of tech that includes artificial intelligence, bio-metrics, machine learning and tamper detection.”
View the full list here: Fintech100.
This article was sourced from BusinessTech; the original publication can be viewed here.
