The FinTech50 2016: these are the game changers

This week is #Money2020Europe week in Copenhagen.  Considering it’s the first time they’ve run Money2020 over here, it’s pretty impressive to have over 3,500 people attending.  I’m chairing a couple of plenary sessions tomorrow with Commerzbank, Tandem Bank and Western Union, and have been tracking events so far.  Lots of headlines, but the one really worth noting is the announcement of the FinTech50, as I’m a judge on the panel.

The FinTech50 is a list produced annually of the 50 European businesses who are transforming financial services. Now in its fourth year, it’s a recognized FinTech brand, generating worldwide interest when announced each year and this year’s list was announced last night https://issuu.com/fintechcity/docs/ft50_16_spreads_lo .

So who made the list?

The FinTech50 2016:

• AimBrain (London, UK)
• Algomi (London, UK)
• Barzahlen (Berlin, Germany)
• BehavioSec (Lulea, Sweden)
• Behavox (London, UK)
• Bima (Stockholm, Sweden)
• Bitnet (Belfast, UK)
• Blockchain (London, UK)
• Bought By Many (London, UK)
• Callsign (London, UK)
• Cognia (London, UK)
• Contego (Abingdon, UK)
• Credit Benchmark (London, UK)
• Digital Shadows (London, UK)
• Elliptic (London, UK)
• Ethereum (Zug, Switzerland)
• Everledger (London, UK)
• Fenergo (Dublin, Ireland)
• Fidor Bank (Munich, Germany)
• Five Degrees (Breukelen, Netherlands)
• FundApps (London, UK)
• InvoiceSharing (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
• Iwoca (London, UK)
• Kantox (London, UK)
• Kaymera (Tel Aviv, Israel)
• Knip (Zurich, Switzerland)
• LendInvest (London, UK)
• Mambu (Berlin, Germany)
• MarketInvoice (London, UK)
• Meniga (Reykjavik, Iceland)
• Monetas (Zug, Switzerland)
• Number26 (Berlin, Germany)
• Onfido (London, UK)
• Personetics (Tel Aviv, Israel)
• Pockit (London, UK)
• Prodigy Finance (London, UK)
• Property Partner (London, UK)
• QuanTemplate (London, UK)
• Raisin (Berlin, Germany)
• RateSetter (London, UK)
• Ravelin (London, UK)
• Revolut (London, UK)
• Spotcap (Berlin, Germany)
• Suade (London, UK)
• Sybenetix (London, UK)
• SynerScope (Eindhoven, Netherlands)
• Tradle (London, UK)
• Traxpay (Frankfurt, Germany)
• WeaveWorks (London, UK)
• Yoyo (London, UK)

In highlighting this year’s list, it is notable that the long list we started with compreised over 1,200 companies representing over $19 billlion investment in 2015 alone (reference KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech Report, March 2016) increasing by 30% in Europe from 2014.  This year’s list includes 30 new businesses d from a variety of sectors including security, compliance and risk.

In a sign of the maturing FinTech industry, the list – now in its fourth year – also places emphasis on businesses demonstrating long-term potential for the future and customer traction.

Julie Lake and Nicky Cotter, Founders of The FinTech50, commented: “2016 marks a pivotal point at which big banks and traditional financial institutions are starting to collaborate more closely with the industry’s newest players.  London FinTechs feature in just over half the list – in part due to the UK’s favourable regulatory environment as well as access to funding and talent. But London’s status is also being very energetically challenged by FinTech communities in capitals such as Amsterdam, Berlin and Stockholm.”

Jan Hammer, Partner at Index Ventures, a leading FinTech investor whose investments include Adyen, Funding Circle and Transferwise, commented: “2016 will be about maturing of the FinTech industry. With all the low hanging fruit of financial services harvested, the next FinTech companies will be addressing areas that are more difficult from both technological and regulatory perspective and also more disruptive. They will build their own underlying technology rather than relying on others and create innovations that are not incremental but leaps ahead of what traditional players offer. It's one of the reasons we've allocated a large part of the newly raised $1.25bn to the next generation of FinTech start-ups."

Chris Skinner, Chairman of the Financial Services Club; best-selling author of Digital Bank and new book ValueWeb added that: “The FinTech 50 represent the fifty companies worldwide who we see as game changers in the future of financial services being distributed in an open sourced, internet-enabled world.”

Valentin Stalf, Co-Founder & CEO, NUMBER26, gets the final word: “Money20/20 has provided an outstanding stage to showcase to the world how the FinTech scene in Europe is thriving. Given how the banking industry is stagnating in a majority of the European countries, FinTechs have sensed their opportunity for disruption. For us, it was the bank account.  Our position within this ecosystem is simple – we are looking to join forces with fellow players in the market to build a FinTechHub. That's why we explore partnerships with market leaders like TransferWise, which adds the world's premium cross-currency money transfer service to our service and allows us to create Europe's most modern bank account.”

About The FinTech50

The FinTech50 is an annual list, launched for the first time in 2013, of 50 European FinTechs who are transforming financial services across all verticals and at all stages, from start-up to high growth.

The FinTech50 is not a competition and there are no outright winners. It doesn’t rely on entries, but is formulated from extensive year-round research conducted by the FinTech50 team and selected by a panel – made up of over 30 industry experts from across Europe.

Discover more about The FinTech50.