Mapping the Finverse

I blogged the other day about the Finverse and $100 billion invested in FinTech firms in the first half of 2021. Wow! It made me think that I often talk about the fact that there are 1,000’s of FinTech start-ups launching around the world. My guess today is that there are over 15,000. Who knows? There are many. But who are they? What are they doing? Where?

Some are innovating and doing things that have never been done, particularly in the cryptocurrency space, but most are solving the things that are broken and don’t work online with banks. My advice to any start-up is either fix what banks do badly or do things that banks don’t do. Simples!

So, I woke up today and thought that we talk a lot about a few FinTech firms – the Stripe’s, Revolut’s and Klarna’s – what about the rest? So I googled a bit and found some nice charts mapping the global ecosystem of FinTech innovations and it’s fascinating.

First the charts. Here’s America:

Source: CBInsights

Europe:

Source: Sifted 

Africa:

Source: Baobab Insights

Latin America

Source: Armada Labs

China:

Source: Tellimer

This does not even include the microsystems that you can see in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai and other city states.

Source: CrowdFundInsider

Nor does it include countries that are growing a FinTech bubble such as India. India’s fintech companies are poised to become three times as valuable in the next five years, reaching a valuation of over $150 billion by 2025, according to a report by BCG and Ficci.

And the worldwide view is even more amazing.

Source: CFTE

Some reports say there are only around 50 FinTech unicorns around the world. Don’t believe them. I can count almost 100 without even referring to these maps or reports.

This is the reason why FinTech is hot, hot, hot, and builds on my sharing of last week’s news that $100 billion was invested into this space is the first half of 2021. It’s not going to stop folks. Enjoy the ride.