The 50 hottest FinTech firms 2017

I sit on the judging panel for the FinTech 50, now in its fifth year, and the final list was revealed yesterday.  Here they are:

FinTech50 2017 list unveiled, including 24 new businesses

• Women leaders feature, with almost 20 percent of The FinTech50 having a female founder or CEO
• UK companies continue to dominate / German, Swiss and Irish FinTechs make strongest ever showing
• Other trends include the rise of AI, partnerships between FinTechs, and M&A as banks acquire market-leading challengers

 

7th June, 2017: The FinTech50 revealed the fifty hottest FinTech businesses in Europe, as selected by an international panel of industry experts, at an exclusive launch event in London.

Chosen from a long-list of over 1,500 companies across Europe, The Fintech50 2017 – the most hotly contested in its five-year history – features 24 businesses new to the list.

This year’s list shines a spotlight on companies leading the evolution of financial services by reducing complexity and cost, expanding access to finance for individuals and businesses, and making money for their customers.

It also reveals new collaborative partnership models being forged between FinTechs across Europe, as well as between FinTechs and banks.

Julie Lake, Founding Director of The FinTech50, commented: “FinTechs working with banks is a powerful trend, but there is also a new generation of innovators going direct to the consumer in areas such as insurance and financial management. Noticeably this year, we saw an emerging evangelism for challenger brands from a very important source: their customers. They may not have (anywhere near) the customer volume of traditional providers, but they are winning hearts and minds in a style more often associated with consumer goods.

“Five years in, a number of successful entrepreneurs are now founding their second FinTech business. Nick Ogden, Founder of WorldPay, is in our Hot Ten with ClearBank, as is Antony Jenkins, former CEO of Barclays, with 10XBanking.”

Marika Lulay, CEO of GFT, commented: “This year the field of FinTech firms to choose from was harder than ever, with so much disruption and innovation taking place. It is clear that some of the most successful firms will be those that are truly disruptive and create new ways of adding value in the emerging digital economy. And for the incumbent financial institutions; the successors in future will be those that embrace this disruption, remodelling themselves to take advantage of the enormous innovation that is going on. If not they risk stagnating and being overtaken, or at worse even facing their own BlackBerry moment!.”

Alastair Lukies, Founding Partner of Motive Partners, commented: “Being an entrepreneur means not being afraid of taking risks everyday. Being a FinTech entrepreneur means going beyond that, knocking down barriers and even battling with regulation along the way to create a world-leading ecosystem. FinTech50 is a fantastic celebration of these people. I am moved by these heroes of FinTech, who are creating lasting changes to society, democratising the industry and opening up financial services to those who need it most all over the world.  I still believe that London is be right place to launch a FinTech company and FinTech50 is a major part of its ecosystem.”

The FinTech50 also pays tribute through its Hall of Fame to FinTechs that have demonstrated pioneering spirit and competitive staying power, with many having featured regularly in The FinTech50 since March 2013.

Amongst those recognised in the Hall of Fame are Currency Cloud, for powering global payments, Zopa for creating the ‘ebay for money’, Klarna for simplifying buying and selling, and iZettle for imagining a wallet-free world. See the full list here: The FinTech50.

The FinTech50 team also announced a strategic partnership with Zone Startups, a leading name in India's FinTech ecosystem, to provide opportunities for European FinTechs to explore opportunities to expand into the Indian market ahead of The FinTech50 Asia launch later this year.

 

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 was the first list worldwide to recognise FinTech for innovation rather than revenue. With 1500+ FinTechs across Europe on this year’s long-list, up from 1200+ last year, the 2017 list was the most hotly contested FinTech50 in its five-year history.

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 60 industry experts from around the world.

 

Visit the FinTech50 website here for more information.

 

The FinTech50 2017:

• Action.ai (London, UK)
• Advice Robo (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
• Aire (London, UK)
• Algomi (London, UK)
• AQMetrics (Kildare, Ireland)
• Atom Bank (London, UK)
• Azimo (London, UK)
• Behaviosec (Stockholm, Sweden)
• Bonify (Berlin, Germany)
• Clearmatics (London, UK)
• Clearscore (London, UK)
• ComplyAdvantage (London, UK)
• Contego (London, UK)
• Credit Benchmark (London, UK)
• Curve (London, UK)
• Cuvva (Scotland, UK)
• DarkTrace (Cambridge, UK)
• Digital Shadows (London, UK)
• Ethereum (worldwide)
• FeatureSpace (London, UK)
• Fenergo (Dublin, Ireland)
• Figo (Hamburg, Germany)
• FundApps (London, UK)
• Iwoca (London, UK)
• Kantox (London, UK)
• LendInvest (London, UK)
• Mambu (Berlin, Germany)
• MarketInvoice (London, UK)
• Meniga (Rejkyavik, Iceland)
• Monzo (London, UK)
• N26 (Berlin, Germany)
• NetGuardians (Switzerland)
• Onfido (London, UK)
• OpenGamma (London, UK)
• PayKey (Tel Aviv, Israel)
• Privitar (London, UK)
• Qumram (Zurich, Switzerland)
• Railsbank (London, UK)
• Raisin (Berlin, Germany)
• RateSetter (London, UK)
• Revolut (London, UK)
• Scalable Capital (Munich, Germany / London, UK)
• Seedrs (London, UK)
• SETL (London, UK)
• solarisBank AG (Berlin, Germany)
• Suade (London, UK)
• Thought Machine (London, UK)
• Traxpay (Berlin, Germany)
• Trussle (London, UK)
• WeFox (Switzerland) 

 

The FinTech50 Hall of Fame:

Ten FinTechs have featured on The FinTech50’s radar since the days when they could reasonably be called start-ups. Some have made the list three years in a row; all are still innovating.

In recognition of their pioneering spirit and competitive staying power, the FinTech50 founders felt they deserved their own special place within a list of remarkable game-changers.

• Adyen (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
• Currencycloud (London, UK)
• eToro (Limassol, Cyprus)
• Funding Circle (London, UK)
• iZettle (Stockholm, Sweden)
• Klarna (Stockholm, Sweden)
• Nutmeg (London, UK)
• Transferwise (London, UK)
• WorldRemit (London, UK)
• Zopa (London, UK)

 

The Hot Ten – this year’s ones to watch:

With over 1,500 companies on The FinTech50 Europe master list, there is room to look to the future.

• Bud (London, UK)
• ClearBank (London, UK)
• Cleo (London, UK)
• Datasine (London, UK)
• Deposify (Dublin, Ireland)
• Governance.io (Luxembourg)
• Meteo Project (Paris, France)
• Nxchange (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
• Post Quantum (London, UK)
• 10xBanking (London, UK)