The FinTech50 2018 September 2018: The launch edition Chris Skinner + Serrala, Rise London, The LHoFT
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The FinTech50 2018
click any name to link to the profile page
AID:Tech AQMetrics Azimo billon Bud Bunq BUX Clark ClauseMatch ClearBank ComplyAdvantage Curve DuCo Ethereum Everledger Featurespace Fenergo figo Friss Governance Habito IDnow Ledger Leveris Mash
Monese Monzo Mosaic Smart Data N26 NetGuardians Neyber OakNorth Onfido PayFit PensionBee Previse Privitar Raisin Railsbank Revolut riskmethods Seedrs SETL solarisBank StarlingBank Suade Tink Truelayer Trussle wefox
on the cover: Romi Savova (CEO) and Jonathan Lister (CTO) Founders of PensionBee
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The
FinTech50 Hall of Fame Adyen BehavioSec* BIMA* CreditBenchmark* Crowdcube* Currencycloud DarkTrace* DigitalShadows* eToro Funding Circle GoCardless* iwoca* iZettle Klarna Kreditech* LendInvest* MarketInvoice* Nutmeg OpenGamma* RateSetter* Spotcap* TransferWise WorldRemit Zopa *promoted in 2018
The
Hot Ten 2018 AccessFinTech CoYa DreamQuark Fluidly Nivaura Pillar 20|30 SmartValor Tetrao Trustology Zego
Welcome to the #HomeofFinTech Rise, created by Barclays, is a global community of the world’s top innovators working together to create the future of financial services.
We bring the FinTech community together to:
Connect We operate state-of-the-art workspaces in five of the world’s top FinTech ecosystems: London Tel Aviv
• •
New York Mumbai • Vilnius
Each Rise location offers a unique environment specially designed for the FinTech community to connect, collaborate and build together with Barclays.
Create
Scale
We continuously pivot, evolve and adapt at Rise. Our awardwinning range of programmes are geared to supercharge a FinTech’s progress: from developing the first PoC to winning a major partnership deal. All supported by our Barclays network of experts, customers, clients and partners.
We focus on the growth and success of our community members, and provide unparalleled support through our specially curated programme of training, events and workshops from across the world, helping FinTechs achieve their full potential.
To join our community and keep in touch with the latest Rise news, go to bit.ly/risesubscribe.
@thinkriseLDN
@thinkrise_global
think-rise
Rise is a trade mark of Barclays PLC, used under licence. Barclays Bank PLC. Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority (Financial Services Register number: 122702). Registered Number is 1026167 and its registered office is 1 Churchill Place, London E14 5HP. © Barclays 2018
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The FinTech50 International Selection Panel
We invite some of the biggest names in FinTech to select The FinTech50s - Europe, Asia and Global Access to Finance
Ben Davey Barclays UK Ventures
David Thevenon SoftBank
Ben Luckett Aviva Ventures
Santiago Tenorio Cascade Global
Elly Hardwick Deutsche Bank
Jan Hammer Index `Ventures Magdalena Krön Rise created by Barclays
Elsa Said-Armanet Stripe
Parul Kaul-Green AXA UK Group
Nasir Zubairi The LHoFT
Don Ginsel Holland FinTech
Andrei Brasoveneau
Sameer Kenkare, AWS
Accel Partners
Menno Van Leeuwen ABN AMRO
Craig Ramsay HSBC
Laurent Nizri Altéir / Paris FinTech Forum
Danny Gilligan Reinventure Group
Irene Arias IDB Group
Nicolas Cary Blockchain / SkysTheLimit
John Hucker Swiss FinTech Association
Mark Whitcroft Illuminate Financial
Nicky Cotter ICON Corp Fin
Ajay Subramaniam Zone Startups India Joshua Barraclough JP Morgan
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Ruth Wandhöfer Citi
Mei Xin Global FinTech Lab
Kaiser Naseem IFC EMENA
José Carvalho American Express Chris Skinner The Finanser / 11:FS
Mahesh Uttamchandani The World Bank
Alex McCracken Silicon Valley Bank
Connie Leung Microsoft Navin Honagudi Kae Capital
Varun Malhotra Quona Capital Jake Kendall DFS Labs
Dr Rainer Deutschmann Dialog Axiata PLC Richard Peers Microsoft
Chris Wheatcroft AngelsDen
Tamara Cook FSD Kenya
Connie Chan Temasek
Oliver Bussmann Bussmann Advisory
Rohit Bodas Propel Ventures Jorge Ruiz Above & Beyond / FinConecta
Danny Gilligan Standard Chartered Bank
Nshuti Lucy Mbabazi EcoBank
Hisanori Ogawa Mitzuo Securities
Peter Oakes FinTech Ireland
Rohan Angrish ICICI Labs
Takahisa Ohira Julie Lake Deloitte Tomahatsu The FinTech50
Congratulations to The FinTech50 2018 We know that legal advice is not “one size fits all�. Our wealth of experience and strong relationships with regulators, banks, insurers, funds and infrastructure and service providers mean that we understand the business issues and complex market conditions that affect every area of the financial technology ecosystem. This enables us to provide incisive and informed advice across the value chain. And, if faced with challenges we have not seen before, our lawyers also have delivered success in some of the most innovative deals in recent years.
Proud to partner with FinTech50
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26/06/2018 12:00
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Introducing The FinTech50 2018
Our Partners
This September The FinTech50 is six. With 1800+ companies across Europe to review and 50+ panel members to review them, the selection process is now a little more complex than it was in 2012. We still don’t rely on ‘entries’ - or Twitter polls. We do our own research, offer FinTechs an (entirely optional) opportunity to tell their own story. Then we invite some big names to select their 50 ‘to watch’. There are discussions, debates, full-on disagreements, and a final, secret ballot. It’s the work of months, not weeks.
Country partners
This year’s panel covered a lot of ground: Insurance, Regulation, Pensions, Analytics, Authentication, Capital Markets, Lending, Payments, Platforms, Sustainable Finance, Crypto! Have we arranged the list to reflect this diverse vertical landscape? No. The vertical thing already feels old. This year’s discussion showed us how far the sector has travelled from 2012, with its innovative single propositions, to an always-on marketplace where, in our panel’s view, the winners will be those who get to see everything the customer does. For an authoratative take on the road to FinTech 3.0, see Chris Skinner pp 10-12. We also recognise some of the early revolutionaries - now evangelising the incumbents they set out to disrupt - in The Hall of Fame pp 26-27. This year’s FinTech50 feature (alpha order) from page 17). Last year’s FinTech50 companies raised a collective $1.96Bn in venture funding. This year, one young FinTech, OakNorth, has achieved a valuation of $2.3Bn – and it’s only two years old. FinTech is in the financial services bloodstream and, note to naysayers, it isn’t going away. Thank yous must go to our partners (see right >>) for helping us to keep The FinTech50 strictly free of charge; to our panel for their priceless insights, to the supporters of and contributors to this publication, and to the endlessly enterprising global community for their inspiration. You all know who you are.
@thefintech50 / @fintechcity
Media partners
It is interesting how the FinTech world has developed over the past decade.
CHRIS SKINNER Founder, author, FinTech50 panel member and global FinTech guru, Chris Skinner shares his take on unbundling, FATBAGs and the remarkable rise of FinTech from 2005 to FinTech 3.0
My first memory of any company that would fit the FinTech world stems way back to March 30, 2005. On that memorable evening, one of the founders of a technology start-up talked about a vision where platforms could connect people who have money with people who need money and have the risk managed by software. It would be like an eBay for money, he said, and the people would trust each other knowing that the system polices the activities. That person was Richard Duvall, co-founder of Zopa. Zopa has now grown into a megabrand in Britain, enabling 1000s to save and borrow through a peer-to-peer money network. Incredible. >>
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IT’S BANKING, JIM
BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT
>> Back in 2005, no one understood what the hell Richard was talking about, however. Things like cloud computing were just being discussed, and rejected by most financial institutions as too risky. After all, if third parties look after core systems and data, it would bring down the financial system. Mind you, they didn’t need third parties to do that. They did it themselves. Another key date: September 14, 2008. It was a Sunday, and I was flying into Vienna, Austria with 1000s of other people, for the biggest banking tradeshow SIBOS, run by SWIFT. 1000s flew out the next day when they heard the news of Lehman Brothers collapse; the crisis in Washington Mutual and Royal Bank of Scotland, amongst others; and the downfall of the financial system as we knew it. In retrospect, we all know that the crash was caused by calculated risks being taken by investment markets using instruments that had no connection to reality. Collateralised Debt Obligations and MortgageBacked Securities were derivatives that seemed to wrap up buckets of debt nicely; unfortunately, it then dumped them into other buckets of debt, and caused a global debt crisis. However, out of the ashes of the financial system came a new drive and vision from young millennials who could code. They hated the
big banks, and wanted to redefine finance through software and servers. Just as Zopa had the idea of connecting savers and borrowers through code peer-to-peer, 1000s of other bright young things had the same ideas.
have a loan to find their markets; their markets find them. And other new ideas were emerging, especially in China where Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu have all been developing radical new ideas with technology. More on that later.
This led to the first wave of FinTech and the explosion of peer-to-peer everything from peer-to-peer money (bitcoin) to peer-to-peer payments (Venmo) to peer-to-peer insurance (Friendsurance) to peerto-peer investing (eToro). From the combination of open sourced structures allowing start-ups to bootstrap on cloud computers and release APIs into the wild, a whole new world of finance and technology emerged, FinTech for short.
Meantime, back to the first FinTech wave. In my own mind, the first major wave of FinTech started around 2010 and lasted until 2015. During the first five years of this decade, we saw huge investment in startups that could attack the financial structures with code, and specially leveraging apps, APIs and analytics. Big Data, Cloud Computing, mobile networks and social media all conspired to create new structures, and the banks were subsumed by these developments. Many banks got the idea of mobile banking apps, but they hadn’t understood the gamut of technologies affecting their business structures which left a soft underbelly for kids with code to attack.
Initially, in the first wave of FinTech, much of the development was directed at disrupting the banking system through these peer-to-peer models. Then some moved into new areas from financial inclusion through mobile wallets in African nations to crowdfunding projects and ideas across the developed world. All of these proved to be radical and new. For example, from the seeds of M-PESA in Kenya in 2007 sprang mobile wallets that allow anyone in almost any country of Africa to send and receive money instantaneously electronically. Kickstarter and Indiegogo created models of allowing start-ups to get funded by their customers, so they no longer need to get a bank to
And attack they did. Unicorns emerged with many removing friction from the financial networks: Stripe, Square, Klarna, Adyen and more, were all making successful bids for the FinTech crowns, and many struggled to keep up. Then the bank decided that much of what these guys were doing was actually helping rather than disrupting their business. cont > >
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Removing friction from financial processes with code is a good thing. So, banks started to collaborate, cocreate, invest and partner in many of these start-ups, triggering FinTech 2.0. FinTech started to rock and roll around 2015, and some of the big banks moved from innovation theatre to collaborating with FinTech. I saw it as moving from the great unbundling of banks (FinTech 1.0) to the great rebundling of FinTech (FinTech 2.0) by the banks. In this process however, something started to happen that moved us from a big bucket of FinTech to a much more granular strata of different markets for different things: RegTech, WealthTech, InsurTech, Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and more came into play; and it was no longer integrating finance and technology, but merging them into something completely new.
Think of Amazon acquiring PayPal and Facebook, and you get the idea. An internet scene spawning giants like Alibaba and Tencent, but also Baidu, JD.com and Ping An. This is why I rarely refer to GAFA – Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple – but prefer the acronym FATBAG – Facebook, Amazon, Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba and Google. FATBAGs, companies born on the internet, will change the world of everything including banking, payments, finance and FinTech. This is why I see FinTech 3.0 as being a hybrid model that brings together many players across ecosystems and marketplaces on the FATBAG platforms. I see FinTech unicorns collaborating to offer full services on those platforms. Already we see Revolut working with Xero, Sage, Freshbooks and Quaderno;Monzo partnering with TransferWise; Metro Bank working with
Source: South China Morning Post, July 2018 During this period, however, the quiet developments emerging from the Chinese internet giants blossomed and bloomed into the financial stratospheres. Ant Financial, Alibaba’s payments subsidiary, suddenly emerged as the 10th largest financial firm in the world by market capitalisation, and everyone seemed to start talking about Alipay and WeChat Pay A completely different FinTech world had also emerged out of Asia, and many suddenly woke up to the fact that they hadn’t even been looking. By way of example, in 2018, Alipay and WeChat Pay EACH processed more dollars in a month through their apps than PayPal processes in a year. China has seen an explosion of online mobile payments, rising from $5 trillion in 2016 to $15.5 trillion in 2017 and predicted to boom to $45 trillion in 2020. Compare this to the USA and you see a quiet revolution, and it is not just about Alibaba and Tencent, but the whole FinTech scene emerging from Asia, Africa and South America. This FinTech scene began without the blinkers of big bank thinking, and has created wholly integrated internet finance on mobile apps seamlessly.
Zopa; Wirecard working with Alipay, Ingenico and many others; whilst Starling Bank is working with PensionBee, Wealthsimple, Habito and Kasko. These are the foundations of FinTech 3.0: collaborative marketplaces of apps, APIs and analytics led by one, partnering with many on platforms. Banks should feel duly threatened by FinTech 3.0 because they are control freaks by nature, who partner with no one unless they have to. For a big bank to about face and start to become an open market collaborator is a huge cultural change and, in the meantime, the challenger banks are actively building their ecosystems. FinTech 3.0, which starts around now and will play through 2025, will be the most interesting of these three phases as yes, it truly does disrupt banking. As goes the classic line from Star Trek: It’s banking Jim, but not as we know it.
Chris Skinners’s latest book Digital Human is available online at Wiley
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.
Sponsor’s view
Cloud Banking The Convenience and Speed of
You may know them as premium enterprise technology provider Hanse Orga Group. Now, they’re simply called Serrala. Here they explore how banks can use cloud banking to deliver additional value to their corporate clients.
The age of digital disruption is here and banks are feeling the pressure to provide newer, faster, and more convenient services or risk losing their position as the center of the global economic stage. Consumers were the first group to move away from traditional banks, embracing the move to digital financial transactions. Solutions such as Venmo, Apple Pay or Ripple let consumers simplify their day-to-day financial transactions and pay using their mobile devices or quickly transfer money to others. And these solutions are rapidly gaining in popularity. In fact Venmo, a company that was founded less than a decade ago, handled $12 billion in transactions in the first quarter of 2018 alone. While banks continue to play a supporting role for these solutions (you can’t Venmo someone without having a bank account behind it), the rapid adoption of this new technology demonstrates how quickly traditional banks are falling behind in the race to provide their customers with innovative, 21st century solutions. Due to the large sums involved and the complexity of corporate
banking, banks continue to be the sole provider of financial transaction services for many companies. However, CFOs and Treasurers are starting to look for ways to optimize their financial processes through software solutions, that are faster and more convenient, but that also go much further in providing value to the organization. For electronic banking they are looking for solutions that will help them centralize the management and oversight of multiple bank accounts, reduce transaction fees, simplify bank communications, and support blockchain initiatives. However, they are also looking for broader solutions that will provide them with greater control and visibility across the entire universe of inbound and outbound payments and ultimately on their cash. While many banks are responding to these demands by modernizing their corporate banking services, the process can be challenging
and slow as a result of the banks’ large legacy IT infrastructures and complex organizational structures. This is where fintech companies come into play – not just as a competitor, but as a supporter for banks. In fact, they can provide banks with the specific technology and capabilities they need to provide faster, more convenient services to their customers in a matter of weeks, not months or years. It is much quicker for a bank to implement a proven cloud-based banking solution with a wide range of banking services and roll it out to corporations and individuals, than it would take to build an in-house, custom solution. Even for corporations with in-house innovation centers, many of the emerging fintech solutions make it possible for banks to offer the latest payment formats and comply with the latest regulations with a fraction of the time and effort.
Sponsor’s view By leveraging a third-party (whitelabelled) technology component, banks are able to keep the cost of banking innovation low, meet the latest demands from their customers and the banking industry, and not sacrifice their existing customer relationships and their established role as trusted advisors. With such a strong extended technology offering that customers are willing to pay for, banks are even able to generate an additional revenue stream and transform their cost centers into profit centers.
Cloud-based portals are a popular option for banks, because it enables them to quickly roll out new services, without requiring a complete transformation of their underlying systems. As a global financial software provider that has been providing payment automation and banking solutions for over 30 years, Serrala recently announced the release of its cloud-based portal solution for banks. BCrest enables banks to offer a comprehensive, feature-rich, end-to-end digital banking cloud portal for inbound and outbound payments under their own brand, so they can better serve their customers. Their customers will benefit from an easy integration of the offering with their existing enterprise systems through
API enabling them to establish a payment hub providing the efficiency and visibility they need. Banks need to redefine their position in the global payments ecosystem – leveraging the trust they have built over decades. They need modern solutions that allow them to extend additional value to their customers beyond traditional banking products. With cloud solutions, banks can keep pace with and even outmaneuver potential fintech market disruptors.
They can provide intelligent, automated, fully functional solutions that enable faster, more convenient inbound and outbound payment processes, built on a platform that provides companies with the centralized control, security and oversight that banks are trusted to provide. By adopting these solutions before their competitors, banks won’t have to worry about the future – they will be able to maintain and grow their business for the next century. For banks concerned about the security of their customer information in the Cloud, Ingo Czok, Senior Vice President at Serral Cloud Solutions has words of reassurance “The main fear is that data can more easily be accessed by unauthorized persons in the
Cloud. However, a recent KPMG study that revealed on-premise installations suffer more breaches than their cloud-based counterparts”. He continues “A specialist provider is more aware of and adept at managing the constantly evolving possibility of cyber threats. Furthermore, an on-premise system can be a known target for criminals whereas, arguably, the relative anonymity of a data center provides cover.”
Considering the number of new threats and regulations introduced each year, it is not hard to see how banks can benefit from the agility and scalability of cloud-based solutions. These benefits are even greater when applied to the very large and complex transactions conducted for corporate banking. As Czok states “Our customers can take advantage of the work we have already done, instead of doing it all themselves”. Banks that are considering implementing new digital solutions and want to provide their corporate customers with faster, more convenient and secure transactions would be wise, therefore, to act now and consider cloud-based solutions.
cont..../
Sponsor’s view Cloud Banking cont.../
As Greek philosopher Heraclitus said over 2,500 years ago, change is the only constant. This still holds true today. Technological developments happen more rapidly by the day. Serrala is a global financial technology provider that Serrala’s solution and services portfolio combines international corporate and banking best practices in a scalable, secure, and automated solutions suite with modern technology that optimizes all payment related processes across orderto-cash, procure-to-pay, and treasury. These offerings seamlessly fulfill the latest compliance and regulatory requirements and provide third-party connectivity, such as bank, portals and credit agencies, directly from within the enterprise-wide system helping to reduce the need for decentralized systems and applications. In addition, the solutions simplify processes and consolidate data across various company environments.
interfaces between solutions. Serrala has realized this early on and has established a unique offering to optimize global inbound and outbound payments processes in an integrated manner. “We understand the whole ecosystem of payments and the implications of new trends for managing payment and related finance processes. We pick up on trends and provide the software solutions to address them. New payment methods like PayPal or Google Pay, for example, change the payments world. Therefore, we make sure that companies and banks are able to leverage these means for managing the processes of receiving payments as well as for making payments – securely, in compliance with regulations, and with the efficiency and transparency needed. This is important, because today the risk of fraud in payments has reached a new peak with 78% of companies having been affected by fraud attempts according to a recent AFP survey. As it is our goal to always understand the needs of our customers to offer the best solution - not only from the functional side, but from the technological side as well, our solutions include, for example, fraud prevention tools that enable an automated monitoring of payments as well as embargo and sanction list screening, and support powerful workflows.”
“In a recent survey, 77% of responding global finance leaders said that they expect financial departments will be more fully digitized and a whopping 98% named increasing automation as the top priority for finance processes.”
This way Serrala optimizes the universe of payments for organizations that seek efficient cash visibility and secure financial processes. In a recent survey Serrala did with an external partner about the future of finance, 77% of responding global finance leaders embraced change and said that they expect financial departments will be more fully digitized and a whopping 98% named increasing automation as the top priority for finance processes. Serrala provides integrated portal solutions, which enable corporates as well as banks and their corporate clients to achieve the automation and digitization they need today. The solutions for managing and optimizing inbound and outbound payments and related finance processes are scalable and can be flexibly deployed on-premise, in the cloud, in a hybrid model or as a managed service to match a company’s or bank’s specific requirements and connect easily to the existing enterprise system. Integrated processes help maximize the impact of technology and minimize the need for
Serrala has helped more than 2,500 customers worldwide to optimize and automate their global payments, be it on the O2C side (inbound payments) or on the P2P side (outbound payments). Serrala thinks globally, understanding global payment processes and offering unique solutions adding great value to corporations and banks, and acts locally with over 16 offices worldwide and a strong partner network covering the regions. The solutions and customer projects have been recognized as leading with regards to innovation and technological excellence by numerous awards in the recent years such as the Adam Smith Award, the TMI Award and the Award of Global Finance Magazine.
Discover more about Serrala at www.serrala.com
The FinTech50 2018 Clockwise from top: BUX; Daniel KjellĂŠn & Fredrik Hedberg, Tink; Evgeny Likhoded, Christian Thomas and Karina Vazirova, ClauseMatch. DreamQuark
AGENTOFCHANGE “Following the banking crisis that caused so much distress to so many people, the banking industry tried to put things back together again the way they were before. I knew there was a possibility of a different and better way to provide banking services to customers. And I had to do it. I had to start a bank,� Anne Boden, Founder & CEO Starling Bank Named Best British Bank The British Bank Awards 2018
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AID:Tech
AQMetrics KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Geraldine Gibson
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Joseph Thompson Founders : Joseph Thompson / Niall Dennehy FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Banking / Financial Inclusion HEADQUARTERS
Ireland, Dublin $ FUNDING Latest: $1M June 2018 Lead investor: SG Innovate / Enterprise Ireland ON TWITTER
@aidtechnology
ON THE WEB
aid.technology
Aid:Tech was the the first company in the world to successfully deliver aid to Syrian refugees completely transparently using Blockchain technology. Founded in 2016, the Dublin-based startup seeks to create a more equitable global system to deliver welfare, donations, remittances, and healthcare to those in need. Aid:Tech provides enterprise level solutions to international NGOs, governments and corporates to help them tackle some of most entrenched issues in their fields. By making it possible to deliver digital entitlements through Blockchain technology and Digital Identity, the business addresses some of the largest obstacles in global development, including legal identity, financial inclusion and corruption.
FOUNDED
2012
SECTORS
Capital Markets / RegTech
HEADQUARTERS
Ireland, Kildare
$
FUNDING
Latest: $3.25M, February 2016 ON TWITTER
@aqmetrics ON THE WEB
aqmetrics.com
AQMetrics provides integrated capital markets surveillance and compliance solutions to alternative investment management and broker/ dealer companies. Through its suite of cloud based solutions, AQMetrics supports a full range of global regulatory reporting for recent and emerging directives including MAD II, MiFID II and the AIFM Directive. The firm also provides a complete reporting solution that enables risk aggregation and is based on OPERA. AQMetrics proprietary risk analytics empowers the automation of traditionally resource-intensive and errorprone processes to ensure intuitive, fast, and cost effective electronic compliance risk management, regulatory reporting and document management. In January, the Maynooth based RegTech announced it was looking to double headcount and open an office in mainland Europe on the back of a number of recent big contract wins.
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Azimo KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Michael Kent Founders: Michael Kent, Marta Kaplinski FOUNDED
2012
SECTORS
Money transfer / Remittance HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ FUNDING Total: $66M Latest: $20M Series C May 2018 Lead Investor: Rakuten Capital ON TWITTER
@Azimo
ON THE WEB
azimo.com
Billon
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Ed Masleveckas Founders: Ed Masleveckas. George Dunning
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Andrzej Horoszczak FOUNDED
FOUNDED
2012
2015
SECTORS
SECTORS
Blockchain HEADQUARTERS
Poland, Warsaw / UK, London $ FUNDING Total: $13.7M Latest: $1.16M Grant, June 2018 Lead Investor: National Centre for Research and Development ON TWITTER
@BillonGroup
Open Banking
HEADQUARTERS
London, UK
$
FUNDING
Latest: $2.1M Seed, Oct 2017 Lead investors: Investec / Banco Sabadell
ON TWITTER
@this_is_bud ON THE WEB
thisisbud.com
ON THE WEB
billongroup.com
Azimo enables customers to send money to any bank account, to a mobile wallet (MPESA) or to over 270,000 cash pick-up points around the world. In May 2016, it was the first money transfer operator to enable money transfers worldwide via Facebook Messenger. In May 2018, Azimo closed a $20 million Series C investment round led by Japan’s Rakuten Capital, In July 2018, Azimo added 10 new countries to its service for customers in Nordic countries. The new service delivers transfers to recipients’ bank accounts In August 2018, Azimo announced a strategic partnership with African payments business Interswitch Group to further enable instant money transfers from 23 countries in Europe to any customer in Nigeria- Azimo’s biggest market.
Bud
Billon is a blockchain/DLT technology company, and UK FCA-registered e-money institution. In a joint effort, Billon and BIK, the largest credit office in Central and Eastern Europe, successfully completed trials of blockchain for regulatory compliance with the 8 most innovative banks in Poland. The companies announced a groundbreaking partnership to implement blockchain for secure, regulatory compliant access to sensitive customer information. BIK can address the data privacy needs of 24 million people in Poland, and provide them with a next generation trusted-document management system. The implementation will start in last quarter of 2018 and a joint roadmap includes unified blockchain identification, data sharing, remote contract signing, and risk-managed smart contracts.
Bud believes that open banking will fundamentally change the way we think about our money. An app and website, Bud works with consumers, banks and FinTechs to help people build their own banking experience. In October 2017, Bud signed a deal with HSBC and raised £1.5M from backers including investment bank Investec and Spain’s Sabadell Bank. This year, Bud launched The Bud Exchange, Bud.x, giving firms access to a suite of Bud's APIs to access open banking infrastructure and a selection of integrated marketplace providers. In August 2018, Bud announced it is developing artificially intelligent software that detects when an individual is paying rent and prompts them to get the payments verified. These verified payments are then gathered into a ‘rental profile’ which can to be shared with digital mortgage brokers, banks and other relevant services. The goal for their technology is to help people understand the usefulness of the data hidden in their bank and to get more renters with thin credit files approved for mortgages and onto the housing ladder.
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bunq
BUX KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Nick Bortot Founders: Nick Bortot, Robbert Bos, Egbert Pronk Joost van de Wijgerd,
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Ali Niknam FOUNDED
2013
SECTORS
Banking HEADQUARTERS
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
$
FUNDING
Total: â‚Ź39.9M Latest: 2018 ON TWITTER
@bunq
ON THE WEB
bunq.com
Within a standard subscription, customers can receive up to 3 cards, Maestro or debit Mastercards. The app also allows users to pay via QR code - and customers can claim a link, which can be used time and time again no App required. A few of the more unusual features, compared with other banks, include two PIN codes on one card, discount on the monthly fee for groups of users and bunq.me: a fundraising service.
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Dr Christopher Oster Founders: Dr Christopher Oster Dr Marco Addelt, Steffen Glomb FOUNDED
FOUNDED
2015
2013
SECTORS
Trading HEADQUARTERS
Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
$
FUNDING
Total: $22.8M Latest: $12.5M Series C Oct 2017 $1.5M Equity Crowdfund, Nov 2017 Lead investor:
ON TWITTER
@bux Dutch digital bank bunq focuses heavily on online ease of use. After setting up an account, customers can send payments to IBANs, contacts’ phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Customers can also request money from contacts, or create group accounts. All payments within the app and to other contacts are transferred immediately.
Clark
ON THE WEB
getbux.com
Founded in 2014 with a mobile app that makes trading accessible, Bux now has over 1.7 million users across 9 countries in Europe. By 2020 BUX aims to become the single destination for millennials who want to do more with their money by creating a BUX solution for every investment need. In May 2018, Bux announced support for raft of new cryptocurrency contracts for difference (CFDs), allowing investors to take part in the virtual currency market in an alternative way. The application permits users to trade in different stocks and financial instruments with fake or real money. Now, CFDs will be available for positions in Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), and Ether (ETH).
SECTORS
Insurance HEADQUARTERS
Berlin, Germany
$
FUNDING
Total: $43.8M Latest: $29M Series B, April 2018 ON TWITTER
@ClarkGermany ON THE WEB
clark.de
Insurance-robo-advisor Clark closed the largest Series B financing of any European InsurTech to date in April, led by Portag3 Ventures and transatlantic fund White Star Capital. Clark enables end customers to manage their insurance portfolios digitally and transparently via their smartphone or computer. Utilizing its innovative robotechnology, customers receive an assessment of their contracts as well as personalized insurance optimizations. Leading digital banks, like N26 and DKB, have also realized the potential of this insurtech. Over 10 million bank customers in Germany now have access to the digital insurance services of Clark via partnerships. Since July 2015, Clark has acquired close to 100,000 customers for its digital insurance services making it one of the largest digital insurance players in Europe. Today the company manages US$310M in contract volume, which is a ten-fold increase from the contract volume it managed in 2016 when it closed its Series A.
22
ClauseMatch KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Evgeny Likhoded Founders: Evgeny Likhoded, Andrey Dokuchaev
ClearBank
FOUNDED
KEY PEOPLE
2012
CEO / Founder: Nick Ogden
SECTORS
FOUNDED
RegTech, Smart Document Management HEADQUARTERS
UK, London
$
2016
ON TWITTER
@ClauseMatch ON THE WEB
clausematch.com
ClauseMatch is a regulatory technology company whose SaaS offering enables financial institutions to streamline regulatory change management. Institutions benefit from better enterprise governance and proactive regulatory risk mitigation through a 360 degree live view into their current state of compliance with regulatory obligations, further enabling streamlining impact assessment and implementation of existing and future regulations. The company is a 2014 graduate of the inaugural Barclays accelerator programme, BBVA Open Talent challenge winner and is in the top 10 RegTech companies selected by Dow Jones, Financial News. ClauseMatch is already live at toptier global banks, and in April 2018 the company closed Series A funding with Index Ventures leading the round. In August 2018 ClauseMatch became the first company to join the UK's Investment Association's new FinTech membership category. .
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Charles Delingpole FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
AML, RegTech, Compliance
SECTORS
Banking
HEADQUARTERS
London, UK
HEADQUARTERS
London, UK
FUNDING
Total: $6.8M Latest: $5M Series A April 2018 Lead Investor: Index Ventures
Comply Advantage
$
$
FUNDING
Total: Private investors
Total: $8.2M Series A Oct 2016 Lead investor: Balderton Capital
ON TWITTER
ON TWITTER
FUNDING
@Clear_Bank ON THE WEB
clear.bank.com
ClearBank®, launched by WorldPay founder Nick Ogden, is the UK’s first new clearing bank in more than 250 years and plans to create a new level of open competition and transparency within the UK financial services marketplace. Described as a “bank for banks,” ClearBank will not offer services to consumers, instead offering payment processing and core banking services to fintech startups, credit unions, building societies, and other challenger banks. In April, ClearBank partnered with allpay Limited, the UK’s largest Bill Payment collections provider and leading Prepaid Card specialist to deliver innovative ‘bankinglite’ services to the growing UK prepaid card market. In June 2018, ClearBank announced a deal with cryptocurrency exchange London Block Exchange so that the latter’s customers can have their funds held domestically and not internationally.
@ComplyAdvantage
ON THE WEB
complyadvantage.com
ComplyAdvantage helps firms make intelligent choices when complying with regulations relating to sanctions, money laundering (AML) and terrorist financing (CFT). The company uses Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to produce higher quality AML risk data on individuals, organizations and associated entities. olutions enable companies to improve how they onboard and monitor clients, screen payments and monitor transactions by reducing false positives and speeding up processes, all delivered by flexible modern APIs. Founded in 2014 with offices in London, UK and New York, USA ComplyAdvantage works globally with some 200 firms in the financial markets and other regulated high-risk sectors. In Q2 2018 the company launched its first Asia office in Singapore. Significant improvements to AML risk data means ComplyAdvantage can now deliver customer onboarding with the fastest OFAC updates available in the industry, and crucially, 100% of entity profiles are checked for updates every day.
23
Curve
Duco KEY PEOPLE KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Christian Nentwich
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Shachar Bialick FOUNDED
FOUNDED
2012
SECTORS
2015
Big Data
SECTORS
HEADQUARTERS
Mobile Payments
HEADQUARTERS
London, UK
$
FUNDING
Total: $12M Latest: $10M Series A July 2017 Lead investors: Connect Ventures ON TWITTER
@imaginecurve ON THE WEB
imaginecurve.com
Curve is on a mission to simplify the way people spend and save their money. With old banks, new banks, credit cards, travel cards, investment apps, loyalty schemes and more, people are inundated with choice in a fragmented financial world. Backed by a who’s who of VCs and fintech influencers, the London-based start-up is solving the problem by combining a customer’s bank cards into one Curve MasterCard, and all of their banking services into one mobile app. In September, Curve introduced a zero-fee FX proposition, allowing customers to access the “real exchange rate, with no hidden fees”. The service has some caps and different limitations depending which service level you choose: the blue free Curve card or the black paid-for one.
UK, London $
FUNDING
Total: $28M Latest: Series B, Jan 2018 Lead investors: Nex Group, Insight Venture Partners, Eight Roads Ventures
ON TWITTER
@ducotweets
ON THE WEB
duco.com
Duco’s mission is to change the way the world controls its data. By leveraging intelligent technology with a focus on self-service, it allows anyone in any business to deal with complex data issues. Technology solutions cover a wide range of areas, including data normalisation, migration, regulation and reconciliation, enabling clients to address their strategic data management needs Since launching its data control platform Duco Cube, the data engineering business has onboarded businesses on five continents and established offices in New York and Luxembourg. In January, it raised $28M series C from Alibaba investors Insight Venture Partners and Eight Road Ventures. In July 2018, Duco, whose clients include ING and Societe Generale, revealed plans to open an office in Poland and to set up data centres in Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
Ethereum KEY PEOPLE KEY PEOPLE
Vitalki Vuterin, Gavin wood, Joseph Lubin FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Blockchain / Cryptocurrency
$ FUNDING Venture ON TWITTER
@ethereum
ON THE WEB
ethereum.org Wired Magazine describes it as “technology that ordinary people can use to opt out of the traditional financial system.” It’s not yet internet shopping, but the potential offered by the distributed public blockchain network make it a must for the list. In September 2018, Ethereum (ETH) fell more than 40% before recovering slightly on exchange volume. The market cap stands at US$21Bn (September 20). Despite the turbulence, predictions are bullish, with one Industry analyst predicting that “Ethereum will “significantly dent Bitcoin’s dominance” to the extent that “we can expect Bitcoin to lose 50 per cent of its cryptocurrency market share to Ethereum within five years. Ethereum offers more uses and solutions than Bitcoin, and it’s backed with superior blockchain technology.”
DATA INNOVATORS
“In 2013 we noticed a huge mismatch: A regulatory avalanche was hitting the financial industry, but while technology was moving at lightening-speed we saw financial institutions struggling to innovate, making it impossible to run these businesses. We decided to do something about it and built Governance.com. Because regulation is complex enough, our mission is “Total Control. Simplified.”. Bert Boerman (CEO), Rob Boerman (CTO) Founders, Governance.com
25
Everledger KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Leanne Kemp FOUNDED
2015
SECTORS
Blockchain
HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ LATEST FUNDING Total: $10.4M Latest: $10.4M Series A March 2018 ON TWITTER
@everledgerio ON THE WEB
everledger.io Everledger uses the best of emerging technology including blockchain, smart contracts and machine vision to assist in the reduction of risk and fraud for banks, insurers and open marketplaces. Everledger builds innovative solutions in markets where provenance matters and where transparency is key to ensuring ethical trade. Everlledger asserts transparency by building on both the public blockchain and private blockchains to achieve a hybrid technical model. This allows us the best of both worlds; high security of the public blockchain combined with permissioned controls in private blockchains that allow us to better serve the industries we work in. Founder and CEO, Leanne Kemp, believes Everledger can move beyond diamonds to tackle problems in the world’s biggest supply chains. In July 2018, the business she founded was recognised by the World Economic Forum as one of the most promising technology pioneers of 2018.
Featurespace KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Martina King Founders: Bill Fitzgerland, David Excell FOUNDED
2012
SECTORS
Analytics HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ LATEST FUNDING Total: $38.2M Latest: $16.5M Oct 2017 ON TWITTER
@FeaturespaceLtd ON THE WEB
featurespace.com
Featurespace is a UK-based provider of adaptive behavioral analytic technology and services such as the ARIC engine. Led by Martina King, Featurespace is developing data analysis “Adaptive Behavioural Analytics” to predict what an individual or group will do next, based on an understanding of normal patterns of behaviour. Featurespace’s Churn Protector uses real-time analysis of customer data for the early detection of behaviour symptomatic of churning, thereby helping organizations to take corrective action and retain each of their customers through individualised targeted marketing campaigns. In March 2018 Featurespace won Anti-fraud Solution at FStech Awards, and in June 2018 was named ‘Best Innovation in Predictive Analytics’ award at CogX. In August 2018, Featurespace earned a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category.
Hall of
FA M E Hall of
24 FinTechs have blazed a trail over the years, pioneering in their particular fields. In 2018, we promoted 14 FinTechs to the Hall of Fame in recognition of their contribution to the FinTech story and continued innovation. * = a $billion + valuation
Adyen*
Europe’s Biggest Tech IPO of 2018
Crowdcube
For Topping ÂŁ500M in Pledged Investment
Payments Founded: 2006 adyen.com Total funding: IPO June 2018 Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Equity Crowdfunding Founded: 2010 crowdcube.com Total funding: $37.2m Exeter, UK
BehavioSec
CreditBenchmark
Behavioral biometrics Founded: 2007 behaviosec.com Total funding: $25.7m Sweden / San Francisco
Financial data analytics Founded: 2012 creditbenchmark.com Total funding: $27m London, UK
Biometrics-as-a-Service
BIMA
Fuelling Financial Inclusion Mobile insurance emerging markets Founded: 2010 bimamobile.com Total funding: $170.6m Stockholm, Sweden
Consensus Credit Ratings
CurrencyCloud
Powering Global Payments Global payments platform Founded: 2012 currencycloud.com Total funding: $68.1m London, UK
DarkTrace*
Cybersecurity Superstar Cybersecurity Founded: 2013 darktrace.com Total funding: $229.5m Cambridge, UK
Digital Shadows The Digital Detective Digital security / risk Founded: 2011 digitalshadows.com Total funding: $48m London, UK
eToro
For Socialising Trading Social trading / multi-asset brokerage Founded: 2007 etoro.com Total funding: $222.9m UK, London, Limassol, Tel Aviv
FundingCircle*
Kreditech*
RateSetter
P2P lending marketplace Founded: 2010 fundingcircle.com Funding: $422.9m incl debt London, UK
Online lending to individuals Founded: 2012 kreditech.com Funding: $282.2m excl debt Hamburg, Germany
P2P lending Founded: 2010 ratesetter.com Total funding: $43m London. UK
GoCardless
LendInvest
For Making Recurring Payments Easy
For Speeding up Digital Mortgages
Spotcap
Online payments/direct debit Founded: 2011 gocardless.com Total funding: $47.3m London, UK
Property lending & investing Founded: 2013 lendinvest.com Funding: $339.5m incl debt London. UK
Business lending Founded: 2014 spotcap.com Funding: $112.9m incl debt Berlin, Germany
Iwoca
MarketInvoice
TransferWise*
For Funding Business ... to the Tune of ÂŁ5bn
Making Working Capital instant Credit facilities for SMEs Founded: 2011 iwoca.co.uk Funding:$158.9m incl debt London, UK
iZettle*
The MPos Pioneer Payments Founded: 2010 iZettle.com Total funding: Acquired by PayPal in 2018
Klarna*
For Simplifying Buying and Selling Banking & payments Founded: 2005 klarna.com Funding:$661.7m incl debt Stockholm, Sweden
For Improving Financial Freedom
For Getting Businesses Paid Faster Invoice finance Founded: 2010 marketinvoice.com Total funding: $27.3m London, UK
Nutmeg
The Original Robo Investment Management Founded: 2010 nutmeg.com Total funding: $89.6m UK, London
OpenGamma
For Driving down Trading Costs Financial derivatives analytics Founded: 2009 opengamma.com Total funding: $40.2m London, UK
For its Pioneering Provision Fund
For Empowering SMEs with Tailored Finance
For Services to the Revolution
Digital Money Transfer Founded: 2010 transferwise.com Total funding: $396.4m London. UK
WorldRemit For Reinventing Remittances
international remittances Founded: 2010 worldremit.com Total funding: $232.7m London, UK
Zopa
For starting the ball rolling in 2005 P2P lending Founded: 2005 zopa.com Total funding: $169.2m London. UK
26 28
Fenergo KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Marc Murphy
Figo KEYPEOPLE
CEO / Founder: André Bajorat FOUNDED
2012
Friss KEY PEOPLE
FOUNDED
SECTORS
CEO / Founder: Jeroen Morrenhof
SECTORS
HEADQUARTERS
2006
2009
Big Data HEADQUARTERS
Ireland, Dublin $ FUNDING Total: $80.4M Latest: $75M Private Equity July 2015 ON TWITTER
@fenergo ON THE WEB
fenergo.com
Dublin-based Fenergo helps institutions manage the end-to-end regulatory onboarding and entity data management processes. In 2015, it received the biggest ever investment in an Irish Tech ($75M). Fenergo’s community-based Regulatory Forums bring together more than 20,000 risk and compliance experts from some of the largest financial firms in the world. These venues provide the company’s clients with direct and continual input into the product and regulatory roadmaps and has allowed Fenergo to build the standard based on industry best practice. In May 2018, Fenergo announced a strategic partnership with Delta Capita, the international business and technology consulting and managed service provider. This will provide the financial industry with new managed service solutions for solving client onboarding, regulatory compliance, and entity data management challenges.
Open Banking
Germany, Hamburg $ FUNDING Total: €10.1M Latest: Venture Mar 2017 ON TWITTER
@figoAPI ON THE WEB
figo.io
FOUNDED
SECTORS
Fraud, Risk Compliance for insurance HEADQUARTERS
The Netherlands, Utrecht $ FUNDING Total: €15M Latest: Series A, Dec 2017 ON THE WEB
Open-banking pioneer figo realized the opportunities arising from PSD2 accompanied by changing customer expectations. It aggregates financial sources from over 3,100 banks and financial institutions to enable innovative services., and its ‘Banking as a Service’ platform connects with more than 55 million online banking accounts in Germany and Austria. Figo has also developed RegShield, a “License as a Service” product designed to take on the burden of its partners’ licensing obligations, allowing them to implement products and features requiring regulated account access. The model benefits two types of businesses: small startups that lack the resources they need, and large companies that do not want to alter their already complex processes in order to secure a licence. In August 2018, figo became a regulated institution under the Payment Services Supervision Act. This grants figo authorisation by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) to provide payment initiation (PIS) and account information services (AIS), which have been regulated since the beginning of the year.
friss.com
FRISS is a leading expert in the field of fraud, risk & compliance for the insurance industry. The have a unique global footprint with 130+ implementations in over 25 countries. An AIpowered detection solutions for underwriting, claims and SIU, FRISS detects fraud, mitigates risks and supports digital transformation. FRISS solutions are helping over 150 insurers to lower the loss ratio, enable profitable portfolio growth, and improve the customer experience. Industry analysts have recognized FRISS as the market leader in fraud and risk solutions for P&C insurance companies. The Netherlands-based company received $17.M Series A funding in December 2017 from BlackFin Capital Partners. In August 2018, Friss announced a new and innovative feature in their fraud analytics solution: Online Network Analysis from Web-IQ. This feature automatically identifies if the claimants and the insured or other involved persons are related to each other in an on-line environment.
29
Governance
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Bert Boerman Founders: Bert Boerman, Rob Boerman (CTO) FOUNDED
2014
Habito
SECTORS
Financial Sector & Corporate Structures
HEADQUARTERS
Luxembourg $ FUNDING Total: €2.4M
ON TWITTER
@Governance_com
ON THE WEB
governance.com
KEY PEOPLE
CEO & Founder: Daniel Hegarty FOUNDED
2015
The Governance team is drawn from leading organizations such as ABN Amro, JP Morgan, SEB and Fidelity. Clients span 7 countries across the US and Europe and include Global Tier 1 Banks, Asset Managers, Fund Administrators, Fund Management Companies and other regulated institutions. Awards & Recognition include: European RegTech100, Most Trusted Risk Compliance Solution Provider 2017, The FinTech50 Hot Ten 2017.
SECTORS
Lending, Mortgages
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Rupert Spiegelberg Founders: Armin Bauer, Felix Haas, Sebastian Baerhold Dennis von Ferenczy, FOUNDED
2014
HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ FUNDING Total: $32.9M Latest: $27.5M Series B Sept 2017
SECTORS
Identity Management HEADQUARTERS
ON TWITTER
Germany, Munich $ FUNDING Total: $12M Latest: Series B, May 2018
ON THE WEB
@heyhabito Luxembourg’s FinTech startup of the year 2016, Governance.com gives regulated companies total control of their processes, by turning complex and unorganized data into easily accessible actionable information. The platform connects data across the organization, links the data to the underlying documentation and enables collaboration through structured workflows.
IDnow
habito.com
Habito is revolutionising the way mortgage advice is delivered in the UK. Its artificially intelligent chat bot allows people to discuss their mortgage needs 24/7 from any connected device. The company will also be working with several major retail banks and high street lenders to integrate its technology and systems directly, in order to achieve its ambition of facilitating real-time mortgage approvals, as well as applications. and transparent insurance products. In August 2018, Habito launched a life insurance offering as its first add-on service. Habito Life Insurance is underwritten by AIG Life Limited and allows customers to assess their eligibility by answering as few as nine questions.
ON TWITTER
@IDnowGmbH
ON THE WEB
idnow.eu
IDnow’s Identity-as-a-Service platform can verify in real time the identities of more than 6.3 billion people from 115 different countries. Patent-protected video identification and e-signing solutions help clients to save money, improve customer conversion rates and streamline the onboarding process. The Munich-based business raised a Series B funding in May 2018, and entered into a partnership with G+D Mobile Security to combine expertise and resources with the aim to develop AI-driven biometric and security technologies.
3028
Ledger KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Eric Larchevêque FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Security / Cryptocurrency and blockchain HEADQUARTERS
France, Paris $ FUNDING Total: $85.1M Latest: $75M Series B Jan 2018 ON TWITTER
@ledger ON THE WEB
ledger.fr
Ledger was launched in 2014 by eight experts with complementary backgrounds in embedded security, cryptocurrencies and entrepreneurship, united around the idea of creating secure solutions for blockchain applications. Ledger aims at securing the new disruptive class of crypto assets: Financial assets like cryptocurrencies or Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), Data assets like sensors, Internet of Things (IoT) devices or machine to machine, and Digital identities like second factor authentication or passwordless login. Ledger received $75M Series B funding in January 2018 and now has over 80 employees in Paris, Vierzon and San Francisco. In September 2018, Ledger was named by EY as its Parisian startup of the Year.
Leveris
Mash KEY PEOPLE
CEO: James Hickson Founder: Tommi Lindfors Director: Samuli Korpinen
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Conor Fennelly FOUNDED
2014
FOUNDED
2007
SECTORS
Marketplace Banking
SECTORS
Payments / Lending
HEADQUARTERS
Ireland, Dublin $ FUNDING Total: Undisclosed Latest: €15M Strategic investment from Link Asset Services, August 2018 ON TWITTER
@WeAreLeveris ON THE WEB
leveris.com
Dublin-based Leveris has developed a next-generation, modular, end-to-end banking platform that facilitates lending, deposit taking, card issuance and digital channel design. Its open architecture enables seamless integration with third parties through a combination of functionality, creating unique solutions for clients. Leveris has two products integrated onto one platform: a full service, endto-end digital retail bank and a full-spectrum lending solution. Leveris describes this as enabling existing and new banking entrants to outperform competitors in customer experience and cost effectiveness. In August 2018, Leveris announced a strategic investment from Link Asset Services (a subsidary of Link Group): the largest independent debt servicer in Europe.
HEADQUARTERS
Finland, Helskini / Luxembourg $
FUNDING
Total: $101M (incl $69M debt financing) 2015 Latest: $5.8M Equity Crowdfunding June 2017
ON TWITTER
@MashComOfficial ON THE WEB
mash.com
Fast-growing Finnishheadquartered Mash leverages advanced proprietary algorithms, machine learning capabilities, and automated platform to deliver superior finance and payments solutions to thousands of customers every day. The lender now operates in Finland, Sweden, Poland and Spain and moved its operations to Luxembourg hub The LHoFT in 2018. Mash continued to grow rapidly in all markets during the second quarter, achieving a record Q2 2018 in terms of lending volumes (+27%) and revenues (+36%) compared to Q1 2018. Revenues grew by 99% compared to H12017. Registered merchants for Mash’s pay later point of sale solution grew 733%. The number of new customers grew by 265% compared to H1 2017.
31
Monese KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Norris Koppel FOUNDED
2013
SECTORS
Banking / Financial Inclusion HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ FUNDING Total $77.2M Latest: $60M Series B Sep 2018 Lead Investor: Kinnevik ON TWITTER
@MyMonese ON THE WEB
monese.com
Monese began by helping migrant workers who needed a bank account to make ends meet, and this has given it a hugely loyal customer base. Launched in 2015, Monese lets anyone open a UK bank account in a matter of moments without needing a UK address - something no major high street bank would do at the time. Monese has expanded to 20 countries and translated the app into eight different languages, and has nearly 400,000 account holders. 70% of Monese accounts are full-time primary bank accounts, where people are having their salary paid in each month. In August 2018, Monese announced free banking to all students across the UK/Europe and the UK University places in September. The Student Account offers free access to all the features of a Monese Plus Plan for 1 year, usually £4.95 per month. In September, Monese secured a Series B funding round of $60M from Kinnevik.
Monzo KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Tom Blomfield Founders: Tom Blomfield, Gary Dolman, Paul Rippon, Jonas Huckestein, Jason Bates
Mosaic SmartData KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Matthew Hodgson FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Data Analytics HEADQUARTERS
FOUNDED
2015
SECTORS
Banking HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ FUNDING Total: $106.6M Latest: Venture Round, Aug 2018 / $71M Series D Nov 2017 Lead Investor: Goodwater Capital ON TWITTER
@monzo ON THE WEB
monzo.com
A bank that lives on your smartphone, Monzo believes in treating customers fairly and being totally transparent. Monzo now has more than 600,000 customers using its debit cards to manage their money and spend around the world. Monzo introduced a range of options this year, including Apple Pay, joint accounts and overdrafts for current account holders (cost is 50 pence per day, with a free £20 buffer to allow for delayed transactions). In addition, every Monzo account is protected (up to £85,000) by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). In June 2018, Monzo announced a partnership with TransferWise (see Hall of Fame p27) to provide international payments from within its mobile app. In August 2018, news emerged that Monzo is looking to close a $150M funding round by the end of the year, pushing it to a $1.5B valuation.
UK, London $
FUNDING
Latest: undisclosed Lead investors: JP Morgan
ON TWITTER
@MosaicSmartData
ON THE WEB
mosaicsmartdata.com
Mosaic Smart Data is a data analytics company with the aim of allowing capital market participants to unite all of their fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) trading data into one powerful, real time viewpoint. This enables each function to see exactly what is going on in the FICC business in real time and at any level of detail, from the macro to the atomic. Mosaic’s technology uses predictive analytics based on historical trading patterns to allow banks to better understand the behaviour of their own customers and thereby increase market share and maximise profitability. In 2018, Mosaic won investment from JPMorgan to enable further business expansion, entered into an R&D partnership with European Space Agency to apply their machine learning models to financial markets. In August 2018, Mosaic added real-time analytics for interest rate swaps to its MSX platform. MSX provides real-time analytics for swaps denominated in US dollar, sterling, euro, and Scandinavian currencies, which make up the majority of the USD 2.1 trillion a day interest rate swaps market.
ESSENTIAL > SERVICES “I came up with the idea of building NetGuardians’ anti-fraud software platform during my studies by finding out the weaknesses in companies’ systems that make them vulnerable to fraud. The fact that I could change the lives of banks’ customers ensuring their bank account is not flushed by fraudsters - inspired me to found the business.” Joël Winteregg, Founder & CEO NetGuardians, Switzerland
33
N26
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Valentin Stalf Founders: Valentin Stalf Maximilian Tayenthal CEO: N26 bank: Markus Gunter
FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Digital Banking
NetGuardians
HEADQUARTERS
Berlin, Germany $ FUNDING Total: $212.8M Latest: $160M Mar 2018
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Joël Winteregg Founders: Joel Winteregg, Raffael Maio FOUNDED
ON TWITTER
2011
ON THE WEB
@n26
n26.com
Ranked overall third in the list, N26 is Europe’s first Mobile Bank with a full European banking license. At June 2018, N26 claimed to have 1M customers across Europe who generate $1.17Bn in transaction volume every month. With plans to expand beyond the Eurozone, N26 is aiming for 5 million customers by 2020. There are three levels of account: free, black (at €9.90 per month) and business. N26 also offers a metal card and partners with providers such as WeWork, allowing its customers to book a desk for free once a month at any WeWork location around the world. In August 2018, N26 introduced Spaces, which allows customers to open additional sub-accounts, and in September it unveiled N26 Black, a premium plan for freelancers and the self-employed.
SECTORS
Cyber Security
HEADQUARTERS
Switzerland, Yverdon-les-Bains $ FUNDING Total: $13.9M Latest: $8.7M 2017 ON TWITTER
@netguardians
ON THE WEB
netguardians.ch
NetGuardians is dedicated to making the world a safer place by developing cutting-edge analytics technology. Named a Gartner Cool Vendor in 2015, the Swiss FinTech company enables banks to beat fraud and automate compliance. Its software leverages Big Data to correlate and analyze user behaviors across the entire bank system – not just at the transaction level. NetGuardians has a growing client base in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, with offices in Switzerland, Singapore, Kenya, and Poland. In February 2018, it signed Canada’s FirstOntario Credit Union to strengthen its position in the fight against fraud and cyber-crime.
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32
Neyber KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Martin Ijaha Founders: Martin Ijaha Monica Kalla, Ezechi Britton FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Financial Wellbeing, lending HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ FUNDING Total: $195M (incl $19M debt financing Latest: $130M Series C Sep 2017 ON TWITTER
@helloneyber ON THE WEB
neyber.co.uk Neyber is a financial wellbeing provider that helps UK employees to be better with their money. The London-based business partners with employers to support their workforce’s financial wellbeing with access to affordable, salarydeducted loans and financial education - all at no cost or risk to the employer. In its 3 years, Neyber has grown exponentially, and now reaches over 1 million employees in over 200 organisations, from blue-chip to SME, with workplace financial educational programmes and five borrowing products. In September 2017, it secured a notable Series C funding round of £100M ($130M) from Goldman Sachs. At August 2018, Neyber’s TrustPilot score stands at 9.4
OakNorth KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Rishi Khosla Founders: Rishi Khosla, Joel Perlman FOUNDED
2015
SECTORS
Lending / Debt finance for fast-growth businesses HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ FUNDING Total: $601M Latest: $100M Series B Sept 2018 Lead investors: NIBC Bank, EDBI ON TWITTER
@OakNorth
ON THE WEB
oaknorth.com
Launched in September 2015, OakNorth is a UK bank that provides fast, flexible and accessible debt finance (from £500K to £30M) to fast-growth businesses and established property developers. OakNorth is powered by its ‘ACORN machine’, a technology underwriting system which the bank also licenses to other banks and lenders around the world. Since launch, OakNorth turned cash flow positive in month 11 (August 2016) and repaid all its accrued debts before it turned two years old. In 2018 OakNorth doubled the size of its loan book to £2.2Bn, directly helping with the creation of 5,500 new homes and 4,500 new jobs in the UK. A $100M Series B funding round in September 2018, also saw its valuation more than double within 12 months to $2.3Bn.
Onfido KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Husayn Kassai Founders: Husayn Kassai, Eamon Jubbawy, Ruhul Amin FOUNDED
2012
SECTORS
Compliance, Risk & Regulation
HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ FUNDING Total: $60.3M Latest: $30M Series C Sept 2017 Lead Investor: Crane Venture Partners ON TWITTER
@Onfido ON THE WEB
onfido.com
Ranked overall second place in this year’s list, Onfido enables companies to carry out remote reliable background checks. For developers, its innovation lies in being able to quickly integrate these services with apps or websites, allowing developers to easily add background checking. Headquartered in London, Onfido now has offices in San Francisco, New York, Lisbon, Delhi and Singapore and now carries out checks in 192 countries for global customers including Revolut, Bitstamp and Zipcar. In July, Onfido announced a partnership with LendInvest, the UK’s largest marketplace platform for mortgages, to further streamline LendInvest’s digital application process for its Buy-to-Let (BTL) product. Other 2018 partnerships include global remittance company TransferGo and FX FinTech Volopa.
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PayFit KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Firmin Zocchetto Founders: Firmin Zocchetto, Florian Fournier, Ghislain de Fontenay FOUNDED
2015
SECTORS
Payments / Employee Benefits HEADQUARTERS
France, Paris $ FUNDING Total: €19.5M Latest: €14M Series B July 2017 Lead Investor: Accel
PensionBee KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Romi Savova Founders: Romi Savova, Jonathan Lister FOUNDED
2015
SECTORS
Pensions HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ FUNDING Total: $Unknown Latest: December 2017 ON TWITTER
@pensionbee ON THE WEB
pensionbee.
ON THE WEB
payfit.com
Founded in 2015, French Employee Benefits start-up PayFit lets businesses easily enter everything about their employees, allowing them to produce legally compliant paychecks, wire salaries and notify authorities about healthcare or retirement status. PayFit is cheaper than a thirdparty firm or a full-fledged HR department. Already sporting hundreds of customers, PayFit provides a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that helps SMEs to pay their employees. In July 2018, PayFit announced a partnership with Customer Relationship Management, Sellsy, allowing it to remove unnecessary interactions and change data in real time without going through a third party.
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Paul Christensen FOUNDED
2016
SECTORS
Payments / Trade Finance HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ FUNDING Total: $10.7M Latest: $7M Series A, Aug 2018 Lead investor: Augmentum FinTech / Bessemer Venture Partners ON TWITTER
ON TWITTER
@PayFit
Previse
There are approximately £1Tn of direct contribution pension assets in the UK, and PensionBee’s aim is to help as many people in the market who often move jobs to bring their pensions together into a single online platform. Making pensions simple and easy clearly strikes a chord amongst UK savers. The London-based business has signed up 55,000 people to its pension consolidation platform. Users list their employment history and the platform brings their pensions into a single plan, which is managed by Legal & General, BlackRock or State Street. PensionBee reported £100M of assets under management in December and in expects that number to reach $500M. Bostonbased State Street invested in PensionBee in December and the startup aims to use the bank’s industry contacts to start licensing its technology to larger pension providers for use themselves. In September 2018 PensionBee announced a with money app Yolt. This allows existing PensionBee customers to see their live pension balance within Yolt, signalling a new era of transparency and empowerment for UK pension savers.
@getsmepaid ON THE WEB
privi.se
Previse estimates that slow payments caused by inefficient payment terms cost the world’s businesses some $300Bn each year. Previse has pioneered algorithm-driven invoice payment decisions. The London-based startup uses machine learning to predict the likelihood that a multinational will ultimately pay a supplier’s invoice, which enables instant payment. Previse reduces transaction costs for buyers, improves working capital for suppliers, and creates an attractive new asset class for funders. Previse describes it as “Trade Finance 2.0”, driven by data, and driving growth for companies large and small. In January, Previse secured a £800k R&D grant from Scottish Enterprise to set up an new development centre in Glasgow, creating 37 new data science jobs. This will be the company’s first office in Scotland, from where it plans to start rolling out its first instantpayments programme with a number of blue-chip multinational buyers.
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Raisin KEY PEOPLE
Privitar KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Jason du Preez Founders: Jason du Preez, Gerard Buggy, John Taysom FOUNDED
2014
CEO: Tamaz Georgadze Founders: Tamaz `Georgadze Frank Freund, Michael Stephan FOUNDED
2013 $ FUNDING Total: $82M Latest: Undisclosed venture round Dec 2017
SECTORS
SECTORS
HEADQUARTERS
HEADQUARTERS
Privacy UK, London $ FUNDING Total: $21.2M Latest: $16M Series A 2017 ON TWITTER
Savings Germany, Berlin ON TWITTER
@raisin_EN ON THE WEB
raisin.com
@privitarglobal ON THE WEB
privitar.com Privitar is a privacy engineering software company, that enables organisations to use, share and derive insight data safely. Privitar’s mission is to help companies achieve broader use of data while adopting an uncompromising approach to protecting confidential information. The London based company is delivering data privacy and anonymisation software solutions to a global client-base across Europe, North America and Asia. Since launch, it has secured multi-year software licence deals with blue-chip customers in the health, finance, pharmaceuticals and telecommunication industries across Europe, North America and Asia. In June 2018, the fouryear old business won a contract with NHS Digital to boost patient privacy. NHS Digital hopes the contract will help it deliver a new software solution for the deidentification of patient information, which will help improve the way in which data is used across the NHS and social care.
Ranked fourth in this year’s 50, Raisin offers the most attractive deposit products from across Europe delivered through a single platform. The Berlin-based business has seen significant growth, reaching 150,000 customers and launching Raisin UK following its acquisition of PBF Solutions. Raisin now serves over 30 European markets and has over 50 partner banks. In 2018, Raisin saw its first cash flow positive month and reached €8Bn in brokered savings deposits. In August 2018, Raisin launched in The Netherlands and in September 2018, Raisin UK joined forces with Starling Bank. The partnership will enable Raisin to build on the range of solutions it offers savers and to expand the network of partner banks that participate in the marketplace.
Railsbank KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Nigel Verdon Founders: Nigel Verdon, Clive Mitchell FOUNDED
2016
SECTORS
Banking as a Service / Open Banking HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ FUNDING Latest: $4.4M Seed, 2018 ON TWITTER
@railsbank ON THE WEB
railsbank.com
Having founded one FinTech giant, (Currencycloud: see The FinTech50 Hall of Fame p18), Nigel Verdon co-founded Railsbank in 2016 with Clive Mitchell. The two have been friends since they were 13 years old. Railsbank simple to a complex challenge by providing compalnies with access to a complete set of banking, cards, payments & compliance capabilities through one API (access global banking with 5 lines of code). Railsbank has won a haul of awards for its product, including being named winner of PITCH 2018 at MoneyConf, Web Summit’s fintech conference. In June 2018, Railsbank announced a debit card solution which allows customers to create debit cards under their own brand. Railsbank acts as Programme Manager and is partnered with Cornercard UK, the issuer, and Paymentology, the processor.
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Revolut KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Nikolay Storonsky Founders: Nikolay Storonsky, Vlad Yatsenko FOUNDED
2015
SECTORS
Banking HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ FUNDING Total: $336M Latest: $250M Series C April 2018 Lead investor: DST Global ON TWITTER
@RevolutApp ON THE WEB
revolut.com Our selection panel voted Revolut into top place in this year’s 50. First launched in 2015, the banking alternative (Revolut has applied for European and US banking licenses), has evolved from its earliest iteration as single-service money exchange to a multi-service platform with 2.6M+ customers, a greatly expanded bundle of financial services and a $1.5Bn valuation. Revolut now has three levels of engagement: Standard, Premium, and Metal, which launched late August 2018. All three levels allow customers to buy, hold and exchange Bitcoin, Ether and Litecoin with 25 fiat currencies at the “best possible” exchange rate. Revolut, which in February 2018 reported it had broken even for the first time, has announced that it will expand into Russia, Asia and the US, where it has 60,000 potential customers on its waiting list.
riskmethods
Seedrs KEY PEOPLE
CEO: John Kelisky Founders: Jeff Lynn, Carlos Silva
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Heiko Schwartz Founder: Heiko Schwarz, Rolf Zimmer
FOUNDED
2009
SECTORS
FOUNDED
Equity Crowdfunding
SECTORS
UK, London
2013
Risk in Supply Chains
HEADQUARTERS
Germany, Munich $ FUNDING Total: $23.9M Latest: $13.8M Series B April 2017 Lead Investor: Digital+ Partners
HEADQUARTERS
$
FUNDING
Total £24.5M ($32.2M) Latest: Venture Round Mar 2018 ON TWITTER
@Seedrs ON THE WEB
Seedrs.com
ON TWITTER
@riskmethods1 ON THE WEB
riskmethods.net
riskmethods empowers leading enterprises with an award-winning Supply Chain Risk Management solution that supports the complete process of identifying risk, assessing impact and mitigating risk. The approach combines innovative Big Data and Artificial intelligence capabilities with insightful risk intelligence to ensure that the right people have the right information at the right time. Armed with a digitized representation of their supply network’s risk profile, customers are able to make better decisions and achieve first-mover advantage in the face of threats. riskmethods has seen considerable traction in recent years and secured $13.8M funding from Digital+ Partners in April 2017 to support its international expansion. In addition to offices in Munich/Germany, riskmethods has offices in the US (Boston) and in Wrocław, Poland.
Seedrs allows all types of investors to invest in businesses they believe in and share in their success. And it allows growthfocused businesses in all sectors to raise capital efficiently through an online process. FinTechs who have raised money on the platform include Revolut, Investly and Zoopla-backed mortgage marketplace, Landbay. Landbay, also has the backing of British tennis champion Andy Murray, whose growth investment portfolio on Seedrs now exceeds 30 British businesses. In 2018, Seedrs passed the £400M mark of investment on the platform, with over 670 deals funded. It also launched the sector’s first move into automation with new product AutoInvest. In August 2018, Seedrs announced a strategic partnership with US platform Republic. The partnership will offer UK-based businesses the opportunity to run joint crowdfunding campaigns on Republic and Seedrs simultaneously, allowing startups to capitalise on customer bases in the US.
DREAM/TEAM
“Financial Services have very high expectations from Artificial Intelligence. They agree that AI technologies are key to face the increasing competition from fintechs but adoption is more complex than expected and regulation changes make the task harder than ever. DreamQuark’s mission is to provide the right tools to enable banks and insurance companies to build an Artificial Intelligence they can trust, control and easily use in their day-to-day business with a measurable ROI while remaining compliant with any regulation changes.” Nicolas Meric, CEO & Founder DreamQuark, France
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SETL KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Peter Randall Founder: Peter Randall FOUNDED
2015
SECTORS
Payments, Blockchain HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $
FUNDING
Total: $39M Series A 2016
ON TWITTER
@Setl_io
ON THE WEB
setl.io
solarisBank KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Roland Folz Founders: Marko Wenthin Andreas Bittner FOUNDED
2016
SECTORS
Banking HEADQUARTERS
Berlin, Germany $ FUNDING Total: €95.1M Latest: €56M, Series B March 2018 Lead investors: BBVA, Visa Arvato, Lakestar, ABN AMRO Fund, SBI Group ON TWITTER
@solarisBank ON THE WEB
SETL was launched in July 2015 to deploy a multi-asset, multicurrency institutional payment and settlements infrastructure based on blockchain technology. In February 2018 SETL went live with its pan-European funds record keeping platform IZNES, having successfully processed its first transactions. The IZNES platform was launched in 2017 in partnership with four French asset managers. Crédit Agricole announced it had taken a stake in SETL, marking the bank’s first equity investment in a third-party financial technology company. Citi also announced a minority stake, joining Computershare, S2iEM and Deloitte as shareholders in the business.
solarisbank.de
A Tech company with a German banking license, solarisBank has built an API-accessible banking platform which enables digital companies to offer their own financial solutions. Partners can access the solarisBank modules in the field of e-money, instant credit and digital banking as well as services from third-party providers integrated on the platform via API. Solarisbank allows other companies to offer legally compliant financial services such as credit cards or loans by providing its own infrastructure. By June 2018, solarisBank had 65 partner companies, including Cringle and Smava, and believes it will break the threshold of 100 partners in 2018, or in the first quarter of 2019. In September 2018 ABN Amro and solarisBank participated in a $14M funding round for CrossLend, a Berlin-based startup which is using blockchain technology to create a European debt exchange.
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Starling Bank KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Anne Boden Founder: Anne Boden FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Banking HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ FUNDING Total: $190.3M Latest: $80M May 2018 ON TWITTER
Tink Suade KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Co-Founder: Diana Paredes CTO / Co-Founder: Murat Abur FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Compliance, Risk & Regulation
HEADQUARTERS
London, UK
ON TWITTER
@StarlingBank
@SuadeLabs
ON THE WEB
ON THE WEB
starlingbank.com
Mobile-only bank Starling was founded by its CEO, Anne Boden, who pioneered the UK’s first same-day payment service that transformed electronic money. Launched in 2014, Starling received its banking license from the FCA in 2016 and has positioned itself as one of the UK’s top digital-only banks, raising $190.3M in funding. In 2018, the bank introduced a number of new features, including joint accounts, business accounts for UK entrepreneurs and SMEs, and an overdraft facility which allows customers to adjust and lower limits. It has also announced partnerships with leading FinTechs Raisin, Plum, PensionBee and Bud, and offers GooglePay, Apple Pay and Fitbit Pay. In March 2018, Starling was named Best British Bank at the British Bank Awards, also winning the award for best current account provider, ahead of high street incumbents.
suade.org
Suade’s mission is to offer a software solution to automate regulatory data requirements for financial institutions and minimise the cost of change involved with each new iteration of financial regulations. The Regulation-as-aService (RaaS) software platform allows financial institutions to process large volumes of granular data and output the required regulatory data, calculations, risks and reports with the necessary controls and governance. Suade’s client base increased 5 fold over the past 12 months, and the pioneering RegTech is now working in Asia and across the EU. Company founder, Diana Paredes, continues to influence and lobby regulators at the highest level, from the Basel Committee to regularly being invited to closed conversations about the industry. In June 2018, Suade was chosen as a Tech pioneer by the WEF. Alumni include Google, Palantir Twitter and TransferWise.
KEY PEOPLE
CEO & Founder: Daniel Kjellén Co-Founder Fredrik Hedberg FOUNDED
2012
SECTORS
Open Banking HEADQUARTERS
Sweden, Stockholm $ FUNDING Total: $30.7M Latest: $16.4M Oct 2017 Lead investors: Creades, Sunstone Capital ON TWITTER
@Tink
ON THE WEB
business.tink.se Ranked 5 in this year’s 50, Tink is enabling banks to become data-driven and capture the opportunities of Open Banking. Tink is licensing its account aggregation, payment initiation, Personal Finance Management and categorisation technology to retail banks so that they can build their own mobile services and empower their customers to make smarter financial choices. In April 2018, Tink launched a thirdparty developer platform, which makes its technology open to any company that wants to gain access to a given consumer’s account data (with the consumer’s permission). Tink describes it as “compressing the account data from 300 financial institutions into one API.” An online ‘mortgage challenger’ developed by Swedish bank SBAB uses Tink’s platform to aggregate a customer’s existing account data from other banks and offer them a better mortgage rate based on their financial data. Tink’s technology is already integrated with banks such as BNP Paribas Fortis, ABN AMRO and Nordea.
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Truelayer KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Francesco Simoneschi FOUNDED
2016
SECTORS
Open Banking
HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ FUNDING Total: $11.8M Latest: $7.8M Series A July 2018 Lead investor: Northzone ON TWITTER
@TrueLayer ON THE WEB
truelayer.com
TrueLayer wants to power FinTech startups looking to build innovative financial applications. Since January 2018, TrueLayer has secured a series of major partnerships and integrations with FinTech companies, including Monzo, Starling Bank, Zopa, ClearScore, Canopy, Plum, BitBond, Emma, Anorak and CreditLadder. TrueLayer streamlines the process for FinTechs, removing the need to build and maintain compliance, security, reporting, and administration considerations by outsourcing this to TrueLayer and focusing on its front end, offering and delivering value to customers. In March 2018, Truelayer reported a 20% week-on-week increase in signups by developers to its API. In July, the business raised $7.5M to further its European expansion.
Trussle KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Ishaan Malhi Founders: Ishaan Malhi, Jonathan Galore FOUNDED
2015
SECTORS
Lending, Mortgages
HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ FUNDING Total: £19.3M ($25.3M) Latest: £13.6M ($17.8M) Series B, May 2018 Lead Investors: Goldman Sachs Principal Strategic Investments Propel Venture Partners ON TWITTER
@Trussle ON THE WEB
trussle.com
Trussle helps first-time buyers and existing homeowners to save time and money securing a great-value mortgage online. One in two mortgage holders in the UK are estimated to lose £4,000 each year by not switching to better deals; representing a £10Bn headache for the country’s homeowners. The start-up continues to monitor the market for the lifetime of a customer’s mortgage, helping people to switch to a better deal later on. Trussle is backed by some of Europe’s leading technology investors including Ed Wray (founder of Betfair), Ian Hogarth (founder of Songkick), and online property portal Zoopla, which is also a partner. In August 2018, Trussle announced it would be offering a free mortgage broking service to customers who sign up for a credit report with TotallyMoney.
wefox KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Julian Teicke Founders: Julian Teicke, Dario Fazlic, Fabian Wesemann, Florian Eismann, Jonathan Seoane, Teodoro Martino FOUNDED
2013
SECTORS
Insurance HEADQUARTERS
Berlin, Germany $ FUNDING Total: $38.5M Latest: $5M Nov 2017 (debt) ON TWITTER
@wefoxHQ ON THE WEB
wefox.com
Digital Insurance platform wefox allows customers, brokers and, insurance companies, to manage their insurance and financial products intelligently and efficiently. The service brings together the benefits of the online and offline world, combining technology and consulting know-how from the traditional insurance business, which it aims to make more efficient and profitable. Wefox operates in three markets - Germany, Austria and Switzerland - with plans to open more European markets within six to eight months. The Berllinbased business, whose investors reportedly include Ashton Kutcher, also plans to introduce a global portal for insurance companies to develop and price products, then pitch them to its growing base of 300,000 consumers, which has more than doubled in the last year. In August 2018, wefox was reported to be raising a “triple digit funding round”.
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THE HOT TEN this year’s ones to watch With 1800 FinTechs to review, there is room to look to the future. Here are ten early contenders for The FinTech50 2019.
Coya Berlin, Germany coya.com / @ hello_coya Co-founders: Andrew Shaw, Peter Hagen, Sebastian Villarroel
Access
FinTech London, UK accessfintech.com / @accessfintech Founder / CEO: Roy Saadon An innovative risk management service for banks and buyside firms, Access FinTech helps firms track the trade lifecycle and get a true sense of prioritized risk, across an increasing number of systems. The service brings together fintech providers and in-house technology, orchestrating the interaction of the distributed providers and creating a single visual display of the risk of financial transactions in a global sharable view.
Founded by two veterans of German FinTech Kreditech, InsurTech Coya has already attracted $40M funding, including investment from Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures. Co-founder Andrew Shaw says that Coya is different from many of the other startups pitching insurance products across Europe thanks to its push to receive regulatory approval and issue its own policies.
DreamQuark
Paris, France dreamquark.com/@dreamquark Founder / CEO: Nicolas Meric
French FinTech of the Year DreamQuark develops innovative data analysis technologies around deep representation learning to help insurance, financial services, and healthcare professionals take better advantage of the data they have stored. The Paris-based start-up puts its intelligence into developing the best algorithms to rare and otherwise invisible phenomena in a wide variety of data types.
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Pillar | 2030 London, UK 2030.io / @2030ag Founder / CEO: David Siegel, Co-founders: Tomer Sofinzon, Rob Gaskell
Fluidly London, UK fluidly.com / @Fluidly CEO / Founder: Caroline Plumb Fluidly uses machine learning to predict and optimise business finances, providing SMEs with tools to manage cashflow. The objective is to provide automated credit control and cashflow forecasting so that small businesses can get paid more quickly and have more certainty around their cash position. This saves time for small businesses, allowing them to make better financial decisions using a cashflow forecast that is always up to date.
Nivaura London, UK nivaura.com / @Nivaura Founder / CEO: Dr Avtar Sehra Nivaura has developed an Ethereum blockchain-based service to make raising money simpler and cheaper. This could transform how businesses attact investor funds. In March, Nivaura registered, cleared and settled two Principal Protected Notes (PPN) linked to the FTSE 100 - one through the traditional clearing infrastructure and a second using an open public blockchain.
20|30’s goal is to change capital markets by tokenizing shares and building the exchanges that will trade tens of thousands of securities worldwide. 20|30 has been accepted into the FCA sandbox, raised €1M seed capital and will conduct one of the UK’s first equity-token offerings.
SmartValor Zug Valley, Switzerland smartvalor.io / @smartvalor CEO/Co-Founder: Olga Feldmeier Co-Founder: Oscar Feldmeier SmartValor is building a disintermediated network of investors, asset issuers/funds and facilitators, such as compliance providers and rating agents. In September, SmartValor became one of the few blockchain groups to win approval to operate in the Swiss financial market.
Tetrao Luxembourg tetrao.eu / @Tetrao_eu Founder / CEO: Christian Gillot Tetrao’s solution for Business Onboarding enables banks to open a business bank account in a matter of days. The startup’s AI is uniquely capable of tackling complex documentation offering
a digital experience where its AI is collecting, buying, understanding all the business documentation and regulations to pre-fill the application.
Trustology London, UK Trustology.io / @trustologyIO CEO: Alex Batlin Trustology is building a custody platform to safeguard crypto assets. Its smart accounts will be customisable to satisfy the diverse needs of individual, corporate, exchange and institutional clients, now and in the future. Founded by Alex Batlin, a founding head of the UBS financial technology innovation lab, Trustology has secured backing from blockchain “Venture Studio” ConsenSys.
Zego London, UK Zego.com / @zegocover CEO: Harry Franks Founders: Harry Franks, Sten Saar, Stuart Kelly London-based Zego set out to reinvent commercial insurance for self-employed people, with a focus on contractors working in the gig economy. Its first product is pay-asyou-go scooter and car insurance. Unlike traditional insurance, which can be expensive as a proportion of income for drivers who may only work part time, Zego charges by the hour, with drivers only buying cover for when they are logged in to the various on-demand food ordering. services they contract for. The services offers cover from just £0.55 per hour
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What makes a location a ‘hub’? We’re asking FinTech founders and champions around the world to define the special qualities that make their city a FinTech City . In the first two of the series, Magdalena Krön, Head of Barclays Rise London, outlines The London recipe for success - and Nasir Zubairi, CEO of The LHoFT, puts the case for Luxembourg.
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LONDON Magdalena Krön on
What are the key ingredients for a successful FinTech? Working in London is one.
London has plenty of investors who are excited about the prospects of FinTechs.
As the leading global FinTech hub, London is the place to be if you want to build, launch and scale a financial technology company. A few companies featured in The FinTech50 list, including Bud, Monzo and Revolut, are great examples of this.
According to KPMG, in H1 2018 we have already seen venture capital investments in the UK hit $16 billion and if this trend continues we are set to break a new FinTech funding record this year.
London has over 350 monetary and financial institutions and is home to more foreign banks than any other financial centre in the world. This environment is very conducive to start “cooking” a successful FinTech company. But there are a few more key ingredients needed. I’ll start with the seasoning. With one of the most progressive regulators in the world, our Financial Conduct Authority has made other countries stare with awe, and countries are reaching out to understand how they can copy the recipe and create a regulatory environment open for innovation. The FCA’s Sandbox model allows FinTechs to innovate at pace in very complicated, monitored and bureaucratic circumstances. It’s the salt and pepper that helps finalise the dish. As with any company, rapid growth is only possible with certain fuel. What’s the secret sauce? Capital.
Magdalena is Head of Rise London and FinTech Platform lead at Barclays
Adding the Unique Flavour to FinTech Our talent is what makes London one of the most successful and exciting hubs in the world. London has a vibrant tech startup scene with amazingly innovative people. In combination with the close link to the financial industry, our founders do not only have the necessary entrepreneurial drive to build a business, but, they also have deep understanding and expertise about the problems they are solving. The Cooking Pan I meet these talented people in my day-today role at Rise and I can attest that they are truly creating the future of financial services. Rise, the cooking pan in this recipe, is London’s home of FinTech and we bring together the aforementioned key ingredients to create this wonderful London recipe for FinTech success. We have supported a number of the companies listed in The FinTech50 and we look forward to working with many more – continuing to cook and serve some of the best FinTech companies in the world.
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Nasir Zubairi on
LUXEMBOURG Nasir Zubairi is CEO of The Luxembourg House of Financial Technology: The LHoFT. Two LHoFT based FinTechs, Mash and Governance.com, made this year’s FinTech50 and Tetrao was named in The Hot Ten.
Not many people have been to Luxembourg. Not many people, particularly outside of Europe, even know where it is. Situated right in the heart of Europe, bordered by France, Belgium and Germany, an area of around 2,500 sq. km. But this small country punches way above its weight. Innovation and agility are the backbone of Luxembourg’s history and success, from its roots as a steel manufacturing hub, through to today as a leader in European satellite communications and space mining as well as media, technology and financial services. It is where Amazon, Paypal, Ebay, Rakuten and many others have chosen to put their EU HQs and where the European Investment Bank, European Investment Fund and European Stability Mechanism have their offices. It is also the place that the EC trusts with its data; Seven of the World’s 52 tier 4 data centres are in Luxembourg. Luxembourg is one of the few truly international finance centres
in the world and the industry is core to its economy. Logically, Fintech is strategically important to Luxembourg’s continued success and the intent is actioned. Luxembourg is the first EU jurisdiction to license firms providing Bitcoin exchange – both Bitflyer and Bitstamp operate from Luxembourg for the EU. Funds DLT orchestrated the world’s first blockchain enabled fund subscription in Luxembourg and there is a national infrastructure project to support blockchain innovation; Infrachain. The Luxembourg House of Financial Technology, the LHoFT, was set up in April 2017 to act as the central hub for Fintech in Luxembourg. The LHoFT’s mission is to drive innovation for Luxembourg’s financial services industry, connecting the domestic and international Fintech community to develop solutions that shape the world of tomorrow. The LHoFT is a not-for-profit foundation, a strategic alliance between the Luxembourg government and the private sector. The Fintech Ecosystem in Luxembourg is exciting, vibrant,
and growing fast. There is so much enthusiasm from all sectors of the community, backed by genuine engagement and action from all the stakeholders. The LHoFT has an active board of directors that represents how people in Luxembourg come together to make things happen. The LHoFT’s Chairman is the Minister of Finance, Pierre Gramegna. Other directors include representatives from the Ministry of Economy and Ministry of State, the CEO for Luxembourg for Finance, Chairmen from the Chamber of Commerce and Profil, the representative body of the finance sector, as well as the CEOs and MDs of various Financial, Technology and Advisory firms. The access to key decision makers in Luxembourg is unlike that of any business centre. Brexit has played a role in highlighting Luxembourg’s strengths as a logical alternative for firms looking at EU expansion. The LHoFT innovation hub moved into its new home in April 2018, welcoming Fintech firms from 13 different countries in its 2400 sq. m facility. >>
>> The Grand-Duchy is a strategic EU location with easy access to key EU locations such as Paris, London, Zürich, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Brussels. Luxembourg also has incredibly close ties to Asia, particularly China and Japan. Seven of the largest Chinese banks, including the Bank of China, have made their EU HQs in Luxembourg. In Luxembourg, you can do business in English, French and German, including legal contracts in any of these languages. Luxembourg’s workforce is highly educated and skilled as well as diverse. 47% of the population are foreigners. 130,000 people commute into Luxembourg from neighbouring countries for work every day. it is an environment perfectly suited for Fintech companies. Given the capabilities of the centre, there are clear benefits for B2B Fintech firms with solutions targeting fund management, insurance and private banking. There is also tremendous opportunity for firms
specialized in Data Science, AI and Regtech. At the LHoFT, we have helped more than 170 startups wanting to set-up and access Luxembourg’s financial centre. At the LHoFT we work closely with various local and international industry stakeholders, associations and government departments in order to assist the best Fintech businesses to effectively set up, do business and grow in Luxembourg, providing a soft-landing platform for access to the EU market. We work with each startup individually to cater for their needs. We help them with all sorts of challenges be it contact with the regulator, providing offices facilities, legal advice, hiring. etc .… we have even helped them with flat hunting! Luxembourg is undoubtedly a key centre for EU Fintech. We believe in collaboration not competition and actively engage and work with many of the other EU Fintech hubs as well as those in Asia and Americas, to propel Fintech forward.
Your potential, our expertise We appreciate how ambitious and innovative you are. You recognise the need to comply with regulations, but you also need to focus on strengthening your business. The good news is that with us, you can do both. Our team of dedicated fintech accountants and business advisers can provide strategic and technical advice to accelerate your growth.
To help you achieve your objectives, please get in touch with our Head of Fintech – Tom Moore tmoore@ks.co.uk
@KSFintech
www.ks.co.uk/fintech
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