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Using the best fintech companiestechnologyautomate or improvefinancial services. But what are fintech companies and what do they actually do?
Some well-known companies, such as Mastercard and Visa, are considered fintech companies because they rely on technology to process payments, improve investment strategies and create new products and features.
But the wordfintechOften involving financial services companies and startups where technology is at the forefront of their marketing, such as Chime, Klarna and PayPal. Fintech also brings to mind cryptocurrencies, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and purely online banking.
We've rounded up some of the largest fintech companies, ranked by their latest earnings reports (for publicly traded companies) and audiencebusiness reviewsfor private companies.
10 top public fintech companies
1. Tencent
Income:~$82.3 billion
Headquarters:Shenzhen, China
Tencent is a multinational conglomerate that offers internet-related services and products. Through its investments and subsidiaries, Tencent has a stake in video games, social media,venture capital, e-commerce, payment systems, card payment processing and smartphones. It is currently ranked as China's most valuable listed companytendsin the world.
2. Vision
Income:$29.31 billion
Headquarters:San Francisco, California
Prospectis a multinational card services company that specializes in electronic money transfers, often via credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards. Although Visa does not lend money or open lines of credit itself, the company facilitates the relationship between users with Visa cards and banks that provide the money. Originally founded byBank of Americain 1958, Visa is now the world's second largest provider of card payment services, after Tencent.
>>MORE:Sewhat Visa recruiters look for in top candidates.
3. PayPal
Income:$27.52 billion
Headquarters:San Jose, California
PayPal is an online payment processing company that facilitates money transfers for individuals, online merchants and businesses. The company was founded in 1998 as Confinity, specializing in security software for mobile devices. PayPal switched gears and focused on electronic payments in 1999.
4. Mastercard
Income:$22.24 billion
Headquarters:Buy, New York
MasterCardis the second-largest card payment processing company in the United States, behind its largest rival, Visa. Founded in 1966, the company began as a cooperative owned and controlled by more than 25,000 financial services companies worldwide. Like Visa, Mastercard offers debit, credit and prepaid card services that connect consumers with banks and credit unions.
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5. Fiserv
Income:$17.74 billion
Headquarters:Brookfield, Wisconsin
Fiserv is a multinational fintech company founded in 1984. The company specializes in financial technology services for banks, credit unions,stockbrokers, insurance companies and lenders. Fiserv's services help move money between individuals and institutions, including the fintech behind more than two million ATMs worldwide.
6. Blok Inc.
Income:$17.53 billion
Headquarters:San Francisco, California
Block, formerly known as Square, is a technology conglomerate best known for its payments platform that allows small businesses to process payments using smartphones and tablets. Founded in 2009, Block has acquired or created other well-known brands including CashApp, which allows users to transfer money, and Afterpay, which allows users to pay for products in smaller payments without the need for a credit card or loan.
>>MORE:Find out who the list is made fortop technology companies in 2024.
7. Intuitive
Income:$14.37 billion
Headquarters:Mountain View, Californië
Intuit is a software company founded in 1983 that specializes in financial and business software programs. The company has created well-known business and consumer software brands such as TurboTax, CreditKarma, QuickBooks and Mailchimp. Through its products, Intuit offersfinancial accounting, tax registration, payroll and personal financial assistance for companies and individual users.
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8. Nubank
Income:$4.8 billion
Headquarters:São Paulo, Brazilië
Nubank was founded in 2013 and has grown into Latin America's largest fintech bank. Nubank is oneneobank,meaning it operates entirely online, without physical locations. The bank offers credit cards, personal loans,life insuranceand investment products.
9. Adyen
Income:~$1.4 billion
Headquarters:Amsterdam, Holland
Adyen is a Dutch payment processing company founded in 2006. The company created a payment processing platform that allows businesses to accept online payments via credit cards, debit cards, bank transfers and wire transfers in real time.
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10. Muntbasis
Income:$3.19 billion
Headquarters:San Francisco, California
Coinbase, officially Coinbase Global, Inc. is an American cryptocurrency exchange platform founded in 2012. Consumers can buy and sell cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Dogecoin, through the Coinbases platform and technology. Coinbase also partners with businesses to help them process and accept cryptocurrency payments.
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10 Best Private Fintech Companies
1. Ant group
Research:$78.54 billion
Headquarters:Hangzhou, China
Ant Group, formerly Ant Financial, was founded in 2014 and is a subsidiary of Alibaba Group. Ant Group owns several digital banking and financial services brands, including Alipay, the world's largest mobile payments platform.
2. Stripping
Research:50 billion dollars
Headquarters:South San Francisco, California and Dublin, Ireland
Stripe is a multinational software and financial services company founded in 2009 in Palo Alto, California. The company offers a variety of products and services to businesses and individual consumers, including payment processing software, interfaces with e-commerce apps and websites, and accounting software. Stripe works with major companies and well-known brands, including Ford Motor Company andSpotify.
>>MORE:Explore a career in software with Forage'sSoftware engineering career path.
3. Revolution
Research:$33 billion
Headquarters:London, United Kingdom
Revolut is a global neobank founded in 2015. The bank offers various financial services including currency exchange, virtual cards, stock trading, cryptocurrency exchange and debit cards. Before Checkout.com's $40 billion valuation in 2022, Revolut was the most valuable British startup.
>>MORE:Checking outtop investment banking companies in 2024.
4. Carillon
Research:$25 billion
Headquarters:San Francisco, California
Chime is a fintech company founded in 2012 that specializes in offering free mobile banking services to consumers. The products and services include no overdraft fees for negative account balances, peer-to-peer electronic money transfers and interest-free secured credit cards. Chime can offer these services without being a bank, by partnering with regional banks.
5. Polygon labs
Research:20 billion dollars
Headquarters:N.v.t
Polygon Labs, formerly Matic Network, is a blockchain platform founded in 2017 in Mumbai. The company aims to improve the way to mine, buy and sell Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies. Additionally, the company is expanding into other technology and fintech spaces, such as artificial intelligence and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
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6. Rimpellabs
Research:$15 billion
Headquarters:San Francisco, California
Ripple Labs is the developer of the payment processing and cryptocurrency exchange platform called Ripple. Founded in 2012, the company has grown into a prominent enterprise blockchain solution that enables faster transaction processing using Ripple's native cryptocurrency, XRP.
7. Plaid
Research:$13.4 billion
Headquarters:San Francisco, California
Plaid is a financial company focused on building data transfer networks to support digital financial products and fintech services. Plaid's platform allows applications to be linked to users' bank accounts, allowing consumers and businesses to view their banking activities and make payments using various mobile applications. Plaid provides the infrastructure to connect apps to banks for other fintech companies, such as Chime and Venmo.
8. Open Zee
Research:$13 billion
Headquarters:New York City, New York
OpenSea is an NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace founded in 2017. The website allows users to mint, buy, sell, and auction NFTs. OpenSea also has a mobile application to view the marketplace and track purchased or minted NFTs.
9. Afrekenen.com
Research:$9.35 billion
Headquarters:London, United Kingdom
Checkout.com, Legal Checkout, Ltd. is a multinational payment processing company. The company partners with and provides payment processing services to well-known companies such asNetflixand Coinbase. Although its valuation has fallen over the past year due to macroeconomic conditions, Checkout.com was valued at $40 billion in 2022 and was considered the most valuable fintech startup in Europe at the time.
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10. Rapid
Research:$8.75 billion
Headquarters:London, United Kingdom
Rapyd is a payment processing company founded in 2016. Originally started as an e-wallet called CashDash, Rapyd provides financial services such as currency and card issuance and partners with major companies such asUberand Meta to enable payment processing.
Top US-based fintech companies
Many top fintech companies are based in the US. After all, the US is at the forefront of cryptocurrency exchanges and fintech services. Other notable and well-known fintech brands headquartered and founded in the US include:
- Robin Hood
- SoFi
- To confirm
- Card
- Alley
- twin
- Avant
- Opkomling
- Ibotta
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McKayla Girardin →
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McKayla Girardin is a New York-based writer at Forage. She has experience turning complex concepts into digestible articles to help everyone better understand the world we live in.