Hydrogen on NYC + Raisin on Berlin + Holland FinTech + The search for this year’s 50
The FinTech50
January 2019: The New Year edition
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The FinTech50 2018 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 L-R: Matthew Kane (CTO) and Michael Kane (CEO), founders of Hydrogen, HQ New York. See pp 10-11
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The
FinTech50 Hall of Fame See pp 24-25
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 (see pp 40-41) AccessFinTech CoYa DreamQuark Fluidly Nivaura Pillar 20|30 SmartValor Tetrao Trustology Zego
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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
Kathryn Van Nuys, Amazon WS
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
Gregory Vincent INTL FCStone
Craig Ramsay HSBC
Laurent Nizri Altéir / Paris FinTech Forum
Accel Partners
Danny Gilligan Reinventure Group
Irene Arias IDB Group
Nicolas Cary Blockchain / SkysTheLimit
John Hucker Swiss FinTech Association
Menno Van Leeuwen ABN AMRO /
Mirna Sleiman FinTech Galaxy
Mark Whitcroft Illuminate Financial
Nicky Cotter ICON Corp Fin
Ajay Subramaniam Joshua Barraclough Zone Startups India JP Morgan
5
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 Asoka Dissanayake Ebay
Connie Leung Microsoft Navin Honagudi Kae Capital
Varun Malhotra Quona Capital Jake Kendall DFS Labs
Rohit Bodas Propel Ventures Jorge Ruiz FinConecta
Dr Rainer Deutschmann Dialog Axiata PLC Richard Peers Microsoft
Chris Wheatcroft AngelsDen
Tamara Cook FSD Kenya
Oliver Bussmann Bussmann Advisory
Liam 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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Ripple (US)
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FINTECH TIME
CEO
Hydrogen Founders Matthew Kane (l) and Michael Kane (r) on:
New York
Born from the tumultuous global financial crisis of 2008, the initial wave of fintech teams emerged in New York City. Aiming to disrupt and impact a space that was reeling from a severe crisis, these teams looked to bring technology, transparency, and services to disenfranchised individuals. As new waves of fintech emerged year after year, the focus pivoted towards innovating an industry that is traditionally apathetic and extremely weary of new innovation and change. At the same time, customer acquisition costs for fintech startups had and continue to be notoriously high. Both sides of the marketplace, financial enterprises and startups, understood that each had their own strengths and weaknesses. Financial institutions had the customers, regulatory
status, data, security, and reputations. Startups had engaging digital experiences that produced speed, efficiency, continued customer interactions, and delighted consumer preferences. The value proposition of startups also attracted the millennial clientbase that financial institutions had a very hard time attracting. With each side focusing on its strengths, partnerships and business-tobusiness models began to emerge.
11 As the phenomenon of fintech startups working more closely with traditional financial institutions took its place next to fintech startups working to disrupt traditional finance, innovation began to take on several meanings. Cornerstones of FinTech 3.0 became collaboration and ease of use. Open API infrastructures have ushered in a new age in which integrations are essential in a continuous effort to bring together a financial ecosystem that has been disjointed for far too long. It is now difficult to find a financial institution without a digital transformation team in place - the landscape is rapidly evolving and it is incumbent upon traditional institutions to keep up or partner with those who will allow them to do so. A prime example of a company at the forefront of this transformation from traditional finance into the fintech era is Plaid. By providing an elegant way for fintechs to integrate customers’ financial accounts to their platforms, Plaid introduced the importance and value of seamless integrations to the marketplace. New York fintechs are uniquely positioned to be at the forefront of the evolution and growth of fintech. As one of the financial capitals of the modern world, New York is uniquely positioned to lead the United States and the world into this new era of fintech. While Silicon Valley has been a been a natural leader in the consumer fintech space, with notable superstars like Stripe in Payments and Robinhood in Investing, New York has been focused on innovating in other spheres of the financial world. More so than our West Coast counterparts, New York fintech has been far more adept at catering to the needs of financial institutions. Examples include companies like Estimize, which specializes in the aggregation of independent fundamental analyses, or Axoni, a distributed ledger blockchain solution for optimization of post-trade data management. Along these lines, financial institutions have looked at fintech startups for learnings and consumer-friendly offerings. Consumers are shepherding financial incumbents in the decisions they make and the services they offer as they undergo their respective “digital transformations.”
Consumers have become accustomed to features offered by fintech disruptors like commission free-trading, robo-advisory, and easy-access credit on fintech platforms such as Robinhood, Betterment and OnDeck. As a result, many of New York’s largest financial institutions are beginning to shift their offerings to better compete - a true sign of disruption and impact. For fintech startups around the world, another issue has always been ease of development for innovators who might lack the technical expertise or financial resources to develop a new fintech platform from the ground up. The barrier to entry for an individual developer is simply too high for them to be able to ship their platform to market efficiently and effectively, especially when they hope to serve large financial institutions who conduct aggressive technical due diligence. As such, out-of-the box solutions with support for third-party integrations will be imperative in unleashing the next waves of fintech innovation. Some teams in New York, including Hydrogen, have begun addressing this issue with integrated platforms that allow for the more seamless development of financial solutions. As financial solutions lean on integrated platform ecosystems, blockchain solutions are beginning to add value in areas where blockchain’s immutability and transparency act as serious value-additions. Such areas include but are not limited to identity, security, document signing and storage, and payments. Hydrogen’s Raindrop authentication application has begun securing user accounts and transactions for solutions across finance globally. With the talent, access to capital, and proximity to financial enterprise clients already in place, New York is uniquely positioned to be the collaboration ground between financial startups and institutions. Whether they are directly competing, learning from one another, or partnering together, the hope is that the end consumer and individual is the ultimate winner when it comes to services, efficiency, transparency, fees, and offerings.
NYC based Hydrogen is building a worldwide ecosystem for better, simpler, fairer, more transparent, and more affordable financial products. hydrogenplatform.com
@HydrogenAPI
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You have one wish (go wild!) We members of our community one wish for 2019, to with anwild!”. invitation to ‘go wild!’ We gave gave25 every contributor one wish, with an invitation “go
PayU’s Mario Shiliashki took us at our word: “My wish for 2019 and beyond, going wild here, is to build a world without financial borders, without complex trade tariffs and red tape for transacting across borders.”
People over tech “The sector becomes more customer led rather than tech led. The fintech model has to be simple and explicable for it to scale exponentially. Most players still confuse customers with jargon and unneccesary and excessive explanation of their platform’s tech capabilities!” Parul Kaul-Green, AXA NEXT, UK “A significant increase in female founders and women working in the sector.” Katharina Lueth, Raisin
“That we as a sector can tilt the gender mix of our customers to be more equal. Women can benefit disproportionately from “fairer money” and we should be all over this. Yet fintech users continue to be predominantly male. Let’s change this.” Romi Savova, PensionBee
The regulatory environment “Moving to a more regulatory-convergent landscape where regulation is recognised and passport more easily around the world.” Jamie Campbell, Bud “The challenge is for regulation to keep pace and innovate alongside fintechs, such that the legal system adapts and becomes better-equipped to facilitate new products and services offered by fintechs and by banks alike that leverage upon the new technology that has entered the market.” Fionnghuala Griggs and Richard Hay, Linklaters
13 21
Innovation in Collaboration “I wish for global Financial institutions to agree on common minimum levels of innovation budgets and empowerment of staff to work on innovation projects.” Bert Boerman, Governance.com “Banks become better at working with fintechs - quicker to take decisions and the [onboarding] process is accelerated so that it doesn’t take months to make a decision.” Nicolas Meric, DreamQuark. “Senior executives in banks need to recognise that reliance on manual processes to manage regulatory compliance is not sustainable. One wish is that they declare 2019 to be the year that they make big strategic decisions around their strategy for RegTech, because they know it will drive down cost, improve margins and diminish risk.” Ben Richmond, CUBE “Fintech and banking institution are merged and this creates a positive image boost for the community.” Menno Van Leeuwen, ABN AMRO/MoneyYou
Crypto future “Seeing crypto currency serving real use cases at scale, and helping more people around the world, as it’s been promised to do, which are not based on speculation or trading.” Nicolas Cary, Blockchain
“It would be great to have some crypto projects that actually had a meaningful impact on someone’s life for the better.” Charles Delingpole, ComplyAdvantage
Sustainability “Climate change - my one wish is that the financial services industry would put as much energy behind environmental sustainability and as it puts into onboarding, pfm and relatively mundane things. The industry needs to be more sustainable in a way that will ultimately affect us all i.e putting Capital to work to avert the more serious consequences of Climate Change.” Richard Peers, Microsoft “Participate in portable digital identity projects to help with the customer experience and speed of access to services.” Husayn Kassai, Onfido
The FinTech50 2018
Our Partners
Welcome to The FinTech50 2018 New Year update.
In just six months, the companies listed in 2018 have raised a collective $786.1m in venture funding. In this edition we update their news as we also open the search for the 50 European fintechs who will become The FinTech 50 2019 - including this year’s top five.
Country partners
For those who would like to put their business forward, we have made a short form available on our website. It’s entirely optional (we don’t rely on entries) - just an opportunity for fintechs to tell their story in their own words. Also in this edition, we invited three members of our international community to share their individual take on their respective fintech cities. On pp 10-11 Hydrogen Founders Michael Kane and Matthew Kane present their view of New York (and blockchain). Katharina Lueth, Head of Europe at Raisin, writes on Berlin on pp 4041. And Don Ginsel, Founder/CEO of Holland FinTech profiles the Dutch FinTech scene on pp 42-43. Thank you, as always, to our 2019 partners >> for helping us to keep The FinTech50 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 fintech community for their inspiration. You all know who you are. thefintech50.com
@thefintech50 / @fintechcity
Media partners
The FinTech50 2018 New Year update
Clockwise from top: BUX; Andrzej Horoszczak, CTO/CVO/ Founder, BillonGroup; Evgeny Likhoded, Christian Thomas and Karina Vazirova, ClauseMatch. DreamQuark
AGENTSOFCHANGE
“In 2016 solarisBank was originally launched as the ideal banking partner for fintechs. It quickly became clear that not only fintechs, but a vast number of other businesses from various industries were looking to break into the financial services industry. Our banking as a service platform combines a modern tech stack with our full banking license, making it as easy as ever for digital companies and corporates to enter the financial world.� Roland Folz, CEO, solarisBank
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AID:Tech
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Joseph Thompson Founders : Joseph Thompson / Niall Dennehy FOUNDED
2016
SECTORS
Banking / Financial Inclusion
HEADQUARTERS
Ireland, Dublin $ FUNDING Latest: €1M June 2018 Lead investor: SG Innovate / Enterprise Ireland ON TWITTER
@aidtechnology
ON THE WEB
aidtech.com
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. In December, Aid:Tech teamed up with the Irish Red Cross for a new app, TraceDonate, that brings transparency to charitable donations. Aid:Tech was named overall Irish Times Innovation of the Year.
AQMetrics
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Geraldine Gibson FOUNDED
2012
SECTORS
Capital Markets / RegTech
HEADQUARTERS
Ireland, Kildare $ FUNDING Total: $6.7M Latest: €3M, Dec 2018 Lead investors: Bluff Point Associates, Frontlline Ventures 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 December, AQMetrics raised €3m in funding and announced plans for European expansion, including an office in Paris, before potentially expanding into Luxemburg and Frankfurt.
1812
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
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. In October, Azimo launched Azimo Business, which allows SME owners across the UK and Europe to pay for goods, salaries and investments in 189 countries and territories. In November, Azimo announced that it had officially launched its service in Poland.
Billon
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Andrzej Horoszczak FOUNDED 2012 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 ON THE WEB billongroup.com Billon is a blockchain/DLT technology company, and UK FCA-registered e-money institution. In a joint effort, Billon and BIK 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 as the largest credit office in Central and Eastern Europe, can address the data privacy needs of 24 million people, and provide them with a next generation trusted-document management system. The implementation will start in the last quarter of 2018 and a joint roadmap includes unified blockchain identification, data sharing, remote contract signing, and risk-managed smart contracts.
Bud
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Ed Masleveckas Founders: Ed Masleveckas. George Dunning FOUNDED
2015
SECTORS
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
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 2018, Bud launched The Bud Exchange, Bud.X, to give firms access to a marketplace featuring P2P lenders such as RateSetter and Zopa, as well as Open Banking infrastructures. 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. 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. In October, Bud announced a new partnership with global performance marketing company Optimise to drive open banking forward in the UK by bringing Bud’s network and innovative tech together with Optimise’s state-of-the-art universal tracking for website and app.
19
bunq
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Ali Niknam FOUNDED
2013
SECTORS
Banking HEADQUARTERS
Amsterdam, The Netherlands $ FUNDING Total: â‚Ź16.7M (Sept 2015)
ON TWITTER
@bunq
ON THE WEB
bunq.com
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. 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. In November 2018 Bunq teamed with TransferWise to expand the number of currencies with which customers can pay via the app by 24, bringing the total available on its app to 39. In December, Swedish giant Klarna added Bunq to its list of supported banks.
BUX
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Nick Bortot Founders: Nick Bortot, Robbert Bos, Egbert Pronk Joost van de Wijgerd,
Clark
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
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). In December, Bux hired Ripple Executive Aditya Pasumarty as Head of Growth.
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Dr Christopher Oster Founders: Dr Christopher Oster Dr Marco Addelt, Steffen Glomb FOUNDED
2015
SECTORS
Insurance
FOUNDED
2013
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.
20
ClauseMatch
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Evgeny Likhoded Founders: Evgeny Likhoded, Andrey Dokuchaev
Clearbank
FOUNDED
2012
SECTORS
RegTech, Smart Document Management HEADQUARTERS
$
UK, London
FUNDING
Total: $6.8M Latest: $5M Series A April 2018 Lead Investor: Index Ventures
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 top-tier 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: Nick Ogden FOUNDED
2016
SECTORS
Banking HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ FUNDING Total: Private investors
ON TWITTER
@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 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. In December, launch of Dynamic Banking, a range of accounts specifically designed to support the transactional banking services already provided by ClearBank. Two services available are the ClearBank® fixed deposit account and The ClearBank® Segregated Services account, a specific deposit account designed for firms where ring-fenced client monies are held under CASS 7 rules.
Comply Advantage
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Charles Delingpole FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
AML, RegTech, Compliance HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ FUNDING Total: $8.2M Series A Oct 2016 Lead investor: Balderton Capital
ON TWITTER
@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.
21
Curve
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Shachar Bialick
Duco
CEO / Founder: Christian Nentwich
FOUNDED
2015
FOUNDED
2012
SECTORS
Mobile Payments
ON TWITTER
@imaginecurve
ON THE WEB
imaginecurve.com
In October, Curve announced its aim to raise $50m in funding to boost its aim to become the “Amazon of banking.”.
FUNDING
Total: $28M Latest: Series B, Jan 2018 Lead investors: Nex Group, Insight Venture Partners, Eight Roads Ventures
ON TWITTER
@ducotweets du.co
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. In November, Duco appointed Spencer Lake, a former Vice Chairman of global markets at HSBC, to its board.
KEY PEOPLE KEY PEOPLE
Vitalki Vuterin, Gavin wood, Joseph Lubin FOUNDED
2014
HEADQUARTERS
UK, London
ON THE WEB
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 paidfor one.
Big Data
$
Ethereum
SECTORS
HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ FUNDING Total: $12M Latest: $10M Series A July 2017 Lead investors: Connect Ventures
KEY PEOPLE KEY PEOPLE
SECTORS
Blockchain / Cryptocurrency $ FUNDING ICO/
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.” In the first week of 2019, Ether cryptocurrency gained 10 per cent and doubled in value since bottoming out at $75 in midDecember.
DATA INNOVATORS “When we started Suade we set out to build technology that would have 2 priorities: the spirit of the regulation and data portability. This has been the key to our success.” Diana Paredes, CEO Co-Founder, Suade
23
Featurespace
Everledger
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Leanne Kemp FOUNDED
2015
SECTORS
Blockchain
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Martina King Founders: Bill Fitzgerland, David Excell FOUNDED
2012
SECTORS
HEADQUARTERS
ON TWITTER
@everledgerio
ON THE WEB
Analytics
HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ LATEST FUNDING Total: $10.4M Latest: $10.4M Series A March 2018
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. Everledger 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. In July 2018, the business was recognised by the World Economic Forum as one of the most promising technology pioneers of 2018. In September 2018, Gübelin Gem Lab, in cooperation with Everledger, announced that the world’s first coloured gemstone blockchain, Provenance Proof Blockchain, would be rolled out in February 2019.
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. FeatureSpace won a clutch of high-profile awards in 2018, including a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category; a placing on the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 and, in November 2018, a UK Tech Award for Innovation of the Year (previously won by DarkTrace). Featurespace plans to increase its workforces in Cambridge, London and Atlanta, creating over 100 new positions to meet rising customer demand.
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: $48.4m 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: $34m London, UK
Biometrics-as-a-Service
BIMA
Consensus Credit Ratings
CurrencyCloud
Fuelling Financial Inclusion Powering Global Payments Mobile insurance emerging markets Founded: 2010 bimamobile.com Total funding: $170.6m Stockholm, Sweden
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: IPO Sept 2018 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
Spotcap
Online payments/direct debit Founded: 2011 gocardless.com Total funding: $47.3m London, UK
Property lending & investing Founded: 2013 lendinvest.com Total funding: $37.5m excl debt London. UK
For Funding Business ... to the tune of ÂŁ5bn
For making recurring payments easy
Iwoca
Making working capital instant Credit facilities for SMEs Founded: 2011 iwoca.co.uk Total funding:$158.9m incl $75M debt financing 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 Total funding:$630m excl debt
For Improving Financial freedom
For speeding up digital mortgages
MarketInvoice
Getting businesses paid faster
For its pioneering Provision Fund
For Empowering SMEs with Tailored Finance Business lending Founded: 2014 spotcap.com Total funding: $87.1m excl debt Berlin, Germany
TransferWise* For Services to the Revolution
Invoice finance Founded: 2010 marketinvoice.com Total funding: $20.8m London, UK
Digital Money Transfer Founded: 2010 transferwise.com Total funding: $396.4m excl $65M debt financing London. UK
Nutmeg
WorldRemit
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
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.co Total funding: $190.2m London. UK
20 26
Fenergo
CEO / Founder: Marc Murphy
FOUNDED
SECTORS
Big Data HEADQUARTERS
Ireland, Dublin $ FUNDING Total: $80.4M Latest: $75M Private Equity July 2015
CEO / Founder: André Bajorat KEYPEOPLE
2012
2009
FOUNDED
KEY PEOPLE
Figo
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. In December 2018, Fenergo Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) platform won the know your customer (KYC) and Client Onboarding Solution Category at the Data Management Review 2018 Awards.
Open Banking
FOUNDED
2006
HEADQUARTERS
ON TWITTER
@figoAPI
ON THE WEB
figo.io
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 ‘Bankingas aService’ 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. In November 2018, RegShield went live, making it the first PSD2-compliant services available in Germany.
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Jeroen Morrenhof
SECTORS
Germany, Hamburg $ FUNDING Total: €10.1M Latest: Venture Mar 2017
ON TWITTER
@fenergo
Friss
SECTORS
Fraud, Risk Compliance for insurance HEADQUARTERS The Netherlands, Utrecht $ FUNDING Total: €15M Latest: Series A, Dec 2017
ON THE WEB
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 Netherlandsbased 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. In December 2018, Friss announced a new relationship with Boston-based insurance software company, Duck Creek.
27
Governance
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Bert Boerman Founders: Bert Boerman, Rob Boerman (CTO)
IDnow
FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Financial Sector & Corporate Structures
HEADQUARTERS
Luxembourg $ FUNDING Total: €2.4M, Series A Latest: September 2018 (undisclosed)
ON TWITTER
@Governance_com
ON THE WEB
governance.com
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. 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. In September 2018, Governance raised a Series A funding (undisclosed and In November the company announced a ‘smart’ alliance with KPMG Luxembourg.
Habito
KEY PEOPLE
CEO & Founder: Daniel Hegarty FOUNDED
2015
SECTORS
Lending, Mortgages HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ FUNDING Total: $32.9M Latest: $27.5M Series B Sept 2017
ON TWITTER
@habito
ON THE WEB
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.
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Rupert Spiegelberg Founders: Armin Bauer, Felix Haas, Sebastian Baerhold Dennis von Ferenczy, FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Identity Management HEADQUARTERS
Germany, Munich $ FUNDING Total: $12M Latest: Series B, May 2018
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. In September 2018, IDnow launched the next generation of its identity verification-as-a-service platform that will enable companies to verify the identities of more than 7 billion potential customers online, easily and securely, in compliance with regulatory Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements
2822
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
@LedgerHQ
ON THE WEB
ledger.fr
Ledger was launched in 2014 by eight experts with the aim of securing new disruptive class of crypto assets. Thee include: 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 start-up of the Year. In January 2019, Ledger, announced a new product: The Ledger Nano X - a USB stick, just like the company’s popular Nano S, but with Bluetooth connectivity. Ledger also announced that it was launching the LedgerX Volatility Index (LXVX), which will track the expected volatility for bitcoin. The firm will draw data for the index from its regulated bitcoin options, which various institutions have been trading over the past year.
Leveris
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Founder: Conor Fennelly FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Marketplace Banking
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.
Mash
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: James Hickson Founder: Tommi Lindfors Director: Samuli Korpinen
FOUNDED
2013
SECTORS
Lending HEADQUARTERS
Finland, Helskini / Luxembourg $ FUNDING Total: €138M (incl €60M debt financing) 2015 Latest: €50M Venture Oct 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. In October 2018, Mash announced a €50m Equity Round and Launch of Europe’s First Security Token Offering. In November, Mash teamed with Nordic payments giant NETS to provide a “pay later” solution to merchants across the Nordics.
29
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. In December 2018, Monese announced new initiatives for 2019, including new payment channels: a range of money management tools, plus more ways for customers to fund their accounts. The bank already has more than 40,000 cash deposit locations available.
Monzo
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Tom Blomfield Founders: Tom Blomfield, Gary Dolman, Paul Rippon, Jonas Huckestein, Jason Bates
KEY PEOPLE
FOUNDED
SECTORS
2014
Banking HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ FUNDING Total: $270.4M Latest: Oct 2018 Series E $108.5M Dec 2018: $25.5M Equity Crowdfund
CEO / Founder: Matthew Hodgson
2015
Mosaic SmartData FOUNDED
ON THE WEB
Digital bank Monzo believes in treating customers fairly and being totally transparent. With more than 1.2m customers, Monzo introduced a range of options in 2018, 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). Apart from a notable Series E fundraise in October (of $108m in October), which saw the bank achieve a $1bn valuation, Monzo had an eventful year. In June 2018, it announced a partnership with TransferWise (see Hall of Fame p33) to provide international payments from within its mobile app. In November 2018, Monzo became the first digital bank to top the Which? annual consumer survey to find Britain’s best-rated lender. In January 2019, the FT announced Monzo’s intention to appoint Gary Hoffman, former Barclays vice-chairman, as its new chairman.
HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ FUNDING Latest: undisclosed PE March 2018 Lead investors: JP Morgan
monzo.com
Data Analytics
ON TWITTER
@monzo
SECTORS
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 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. In November 2018, Mosaic launched a new feature for its MSX platform enabling users to instantly generate text reports on their trading activity data using machine learning.
BANKING > UNBOUND Monese is defining a new category of banking: one tht is unrestricted by national boundaries, one that makes it easier to live, study and work anywhere in the world. Monese was founded after Norris’ own first-hand experience of the hassle involved with opening a bank account in a new country. Norris Koppel, Founder & CEO, Monese, UK
31
N26
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Valentin Stalf Founders: Valentin Stalf Maximilian Tayenthal CEO: N26 bank: Markus Gunter
FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Digital Banking
HEADQUARTERS
Berlin, Germany $ FUNDING Total: $512.8M Latest: $300M Jan 2019
ON TWITTER
@n26
ON THE WEB
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. 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. N26 launched in the UK in October 2018 with a single product offering. In November, it added a second tier to its offering in the UK, allowing customers sign up to a Metal account for £14.90 per month €16.59). In January 2019, N26 raised $300m venture funding making it the most highly valued fintech in Europe ($2.7bn).
NetGuardians
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Joël Winteregg Founders: Joel Winteregg, Raffael Maio FOUNDED
2011
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.
32
26
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. In September 2018, Neyber announced a partnership with investment platform, Smarterly with the aim of addressing the nation’s ‘savings gap’ by providing a range of saving vehicles.
OakNorth
2015
SECTORS
Lending / Debt finance for fast-growth businesses
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Rishi Khosla Founders: Rishi Khosla, Joel Perlman FOUNDED
Onfido
HEADQUARTERS
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
UK, London $ FUNDING ON TWITTER Total: $601M @Onfido Latest: $100M Series B Sept ON THE WEB 2018 onfido.com Lead investors: NIBC Bank, EDBI Ranked overall second place in ON TWITTER this year’s list, Onfido enables @OakNorth companies to carry out remote ON THE WEB reliable background checks. For oaknorth.com developers, its innovation lies in being able to quickly integrate Launched in September 2015, these services with apps or OakNorth is a UK bank that provides websites, allowing developers to fast, flexible and accessible debt easily add background checking. finance (from £500K to £30M) Headquartered in London, to fast-growth businesses and Onfido now has offices in San established property developers. Francisco, New York, Lisbon, OakNorth is powered by its ‘ACORN Delhi and Singapore and now machine’, a technology underwriting carries out checks in 192 countries system which the bank also licenses for global customers including to other banks and lenders around Revolut, Bitstamp and Zipcar. the world. Since launch, OakNorth In July, Onfido announced a turned cash flow positive in month partnership with LendInvest, the 11 (August 2016) and repaid all its UK’s largest marketplace platform accrued debts before it turned two for mortgages, to further streamline years old. LendInvest’s digital application process for its Buy-to-Let (BTL) In 2018 OakNorth doubled the size product. Other 2018 partnerships of its loan book to £2.2Bn, directly include global remittance company helping with the creation of 5,500 TransferGo and FX FinTech Volopa. new homes and 4,500 new jobs in the UK. A $100M Series B funding In December 2018, Onfido round in September 2018, also announced that it had achieved saw its valuation more than double 342 percent sales growth in 2018 within 12 months to $2.3Bn. compared with 2017 and that it has a four-year growth rate of 3,857 In December 2018, OakNorth percent. announced that it was expanding its lending operation in Manchester as demand in the North of England rises.
33
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
ON TWITTER
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.
@PayFit
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. In October 2018, PayFit was named the year’s most in-demand French start-up, according to LinkedIn.
There are approximately £1 Tn 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 partnership 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.
Previse
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
@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. 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 instant-payments programme with a number of blue chip multinational buyers.
34
28
Privitar
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Jason du Preez Founders: Jason du Preez, Gerard Buggy, John Taysom FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Privacy
HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ FUNDING Total: $21.2M Latest: $16M Series A 2017
ON TWITTER
@privitarglobal
ON THE WEB
privitar.com
Raisin
In June 2018, the four-year 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 de-identification of patient information, which will help improve the way in which data is used across the NHS and social care.
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Tamaz Georgadze Founders: Tamaz `Georgadze Frank Freund, Michael Stephan FOUNDED
2013 $ FUNDING Total: $66M Latest: Undisclosed venture round Dec 2017 SECTORS
Savings
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.
Railsbank
ON TWITTER
@raisin_EN
ON THE WEB
raisin.com
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 €6Bn in brokered savings deposits. In August 2018, Raisin launched in The Netherlands and in September 2018, Raisin UK joined forces with Starling Bank. And In December 2018, Raisin launched the Raisin Account on the strength of Starling’s Banking-as-a-Service offering.
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
HEADQUARTERS
Germany, Berlin
KEY PEOPLE
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 (five 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; Paymentology, the processor; and, Nitecrest, the card printer bureau. In November 2018, Railsbank hired Vaidas Adomauskas as its new Head of Product. Before joining Railsbank, Vaidas was co-founder and CEO of WoraPay (listed on the FinTech50 in 2015).
Revolut*
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Nikolay Storonsky Founders: Nikolay Storonsky, Vlad Yatsenko FOUNDED
2015
SECTORS
Seedrs
Banking
RiskMethods
HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ FUNDING Total: $336.4M 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 has evolved from its earliest iteration as single-service money exchange to a multi-service platform with over 2M customers, a greatly expanded bundle of financial services and a healthy $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. In September, Revolut announced that it will expand into Russia, Asia and the US, where it has 60,000 potential customers on its waiting list. In Decembe 2018 Revolut secured its European Banking licence (in Lithuania) funds will be covered up to €100,000 under the European Deposit Insurance Scheme.
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Heiko Schwartz Founder: Heiko Schwarz, Rolf Zimmer
FOUNDED
2013
SECTORS
Risk in Supply Chains
HEADQUARTERS
Germany, Munich $ FUNDING Total: $23.9M Latest: $13.8M Series B, April 2017 Lead Investor: Digital+ Partners
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.
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KEY PEOPLE
CEO: John Kelisky Founders: Jeff Lynn, Carlos Silva FOUNDED
2009
SECTORS
Equity Crowdfunding
HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ FUNDING Total £24.5M ($32.2M) Latest: Venture Round Mar 2018
ON TWITTER
@Seedrs
ON THE WEB
seedrs.com
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. In January 2019, Seedrs reported a record 2018, which saw nearly a 60 per cent increase in investment activity, recording £195m invested into pitches on the platform.
DATA-DRIVEN BANKING
Ranked overall #5 in this year’s 50, Stockholm-based 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.
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solarisBank SETL
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Peter Randall Founder: Peter Randall FOUNDED
2015
CEO: Roland Folz Founders: Marko Wenthin Andreas Bittner
FOUNDED
2016
SECTORS
Banking HEADQUARTERS
ON THE WEB
HEADQUARTERS
London, UK $ FUNDING Total: $39M Series A 2016
KEY PEOPLE
ON TWITTER
Payments, Blockchain
Berlin, Germany $ FUNDING Total: €95.1M Latest: €56M, Series B March 2018 Lead investors: BBVA, Visa Arvato, Lakestar, ABN AMRO Fund, SBI Group
SECTORS
@Setl_io setl.io
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. In October 2018, SETL was granted a license from the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, the French financial watchdog, to run a blockchain-powered central securities depository (CSD).
ON TWITTER
@solarisBank
ON THE WEB
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 endeavoring to use blockchain technology to create a European debt exchange. In December 2018, SolarisBank and Stuttgart Exchange Group announced they are jointly developing infrastructure for a cryptocurrency exchange.
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Tink
StarlingBank
KEY PEOPLE
CEO: Anne Boden Founder: Anne Boden
SECTORS
Banking HEADQUARTERS
UK, London $ FUNDING Total: $114.9M Latest: $12.7M Nov 2018
ON TWITTER
@StarlingBank
ON THE WEB
starlingbank.com
FOUNDED
Suade
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. In January 2019, Starling revealed that, in 2018, it grew from 50,000 customers to more than 400,000, and its headcount increased from 130 to over 300. The bank also plans to release a credit card in 2019 and to expand into more European locations.
KEY PEOPLE
CEO / Co-Founder: Diana Paredes CTO / Co-Founder: Murat Abur FOUNDED
2014
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.
KEY PEOPLE
CEO & Founder: Daniel Kjellén Co-Founder Fredrik Hedberg
2012
FOUNDED
2014
SECTORS
Compliance, Risk & Regulation
HEADQUARTERS
London, UK
ON TWITTER
@SuadeLabs
ON THE WEB
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.
SECTORS
Open Banking
HEADQUARTERS
Sweden, Stockholm $ FUNDING Total: $30.7M Latest: $16.4M Oct 2017 Lead investor: Creades, Sunstone Capital
ON TWITTER
@Tink
ON THE WEB
tink.com
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
Trussle
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. In January 2019, Truelayer announced that it will now offer Deutsche Bank, Sparkassen, Commerzbank and other major German banks direct access to financial data.
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: May 2018 Venture (undisclosed) 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”. It also announced its entry to the Italian market
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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 / @smartvalorinc 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 second two of the series, Katharine Lueth, Head of Europe at Raisin, outlines Berlin - and Don Ginsel, CEO of Holland FinTech, puts the case for Amsterdam.
KATHARINA
A record €4.3 billion in venture capital reportedly poured into Germany in 2017, with 70% of it disseminated in Berlin. The almost 90% increase over 2016 is as clear a sign of investor confidence as you could ask for: FinTech backers believe in the German capital. Since the Brexit vote, many are also looking to Berlin as the new European start-up capital but whether or not Berlin overtakes London, we can boast some unique competitive advantages. With the German government backing Berlin as a FinTech hub, the city is situated as simply one of the best in the world to advance two core challenges of the FinTech sector: finding talent and accessing large markets.
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BERLIN Katharina Lueth on
As everyone who’s started a company knows, who you hire matters almost more than anything else. A good idea and solid financing can go a long way toward drawing the know-how you need, but the competition today is fierce, and global. Every recent study of the world’s top most liveable cities unsurprisingly includes Berlin. From the reasonable cost of a working visa to the already very vibrant start-up scene — around 3.000 at last count; from the relatively low cost of living to the exceptionally high standard of living (think Berlin’s restaurants, night life, cultural scene and green space, but also German infrastructure, utilities, lack of corruption, and employment protection laws), this city is positioned to attract the very best people in tech and finance. Meanwhile as capital of the EU’s largest market, Berlin offers FinTechs direct access to their most important customer base. Additionally, the German banking sector holds the most assets in Europe with Germany’s financial sector as a whole emerging in recent decades as a remarkably heterogeneous regional giant. This means not just local investment but a huge potential for specialization and partnership is right here on the ground, a key factor in FinTech growth as we see it. In addition, our proximity to the country’s political elite enables the necessary lobbying and education of lawmakers as regulations are adjusted and modernized to make way for technological innovation. The German financial regulating body BaFin as well as other regional and city entities have been taking active steps to provide guidance, improve administrative practices, protect diversity in the sector, and render the environment friendly to entrepreneurs.
While the regulatory environment still presents certain hurdles, we believe the benefits of a level playing field ultimately outweigh the obstacles. As Raisin CEO and founder Tamaz Georgadze pointed out in a 2018 Welt am Sonntag interview: “I came to Germany in the mid-1990s at the age of 17 from Georgia, which was shaped by unrest and corruption. I know what valuable assets fixed regulations and stability are, something Europe has benefited from for decades. Unfortunately, many people don’t have such a means of comparison[...] so today they tend not to appreciate what Europe has achieved.” The speedy hare attracts everyone’s attention, but Germany, tortoise-like, has all the elements aligned to prevail. Confidence is and will continue to be the keystone in online banking not to mention open, or disaggregated, banking. And even more importantly, Berlin is the gateway to Europe. Through compliance in Germany, whose regulation is particularly well-harmonized with that of the EU, fintech companies here find themselves ideally situated to expand across the continent and beyond. With its attractiveness to educated, ambitious professionals, Berlin offers an optimal FinTech setting for employees and founders alike. The city’s recent history of reunification, transformation, and growth provides practical inspiration that few locations can draw upon.
Here, after all, disruption and democratization aren’t just a concept but a lived experience.
Katharina Lueth is Head of Europe at Raisin
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Don Ginsel on
DUTCH FINTECH Don Ginsel is Founder and CEO of Holland FinTech. available
The Dutch fintech scene is thriving. From payments to security and identity and venture capital, and from tech talent to regtech and the slowerto-adopt-yet-steadily-growing sectors of pensions and insurance, the Netherlands is experiencing fintech penetration throughout the financial sector. However, fintech innovations are also eclipsing the boundaries of the financial services industry, with the outside world becoming more interested in fintech and how its developments can transform the world. In general, the composition and position of the Dutch financial services industry within the Dutch economy results in a winner takes all position for selected fintechs entering the market. Despite the Dutch financial services market being dominated by a few players and its concentration, incumbent financial institutions have shrunk considerably over
the past few years. This has had the effect of spurring innovation amongst these actors in attempts to align costs with a reduced size. In terms of the sector where fintech has had the biggest impact, it’s payments. Although the sector has been strong for quite some time and a noteworthy driver of e-commerce, especially online, this particular moment in history stands out in terms of how people are using money digitally. For example, the country of 17 million people and change spends almost EUR 25 billion online annually. This figure is high because 98% of households have home internet access and nearly 50% of the population uses mobile banking apps. Additionally, along with the Nordics, the Netherlands is embracing the idea of a cashless society, with offline cash quickly disappearing. Regarding payments, it’s also interesting to note that over half of POS payments at the end of 2017 were contactless, which means that consumers are quickly changing their behaviour and adopting the new payment method en masse.
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With the growing digitisiation that is currently shaping the financial landscape, there is a parallel need for trust and resilience of solutions and their providers. This push has led to identity and security firms becoming prominent actors in the financial sector, as people demand safety in the solutions they use daily. Other sectors performing well are regtech and personal finance, including pensiontech. Growth in these areas has been driven to a large extent by regulations, such as PSD2 and GDPR. Despite that regulation-led growth in pensions, though, it along with insurance, have turned to tech innovation the least out of all the constituent parts of the financial services industry. However, due to the significant potential impact of fintech in these areas, companies will become more interested in using fintech to solve problems. Additionally, administration and data and analytics have also experienced strong growth. Progress in these sectors is due to digitisation amongst businesses and the increasing amount of available data, which can be integrated into financial analysis and advice. Normally, these players are less visible in the market, as these services are rather technical and mainly business-to-business. In terms of the money-side of the equation, capital markets are strong. 2017 saw a record EUR 731 million of venture capital investments in start-ups and scale-ups. And it’s worth noting the Netherlands’ active angel investor community creating an ecosystem able to provide early and later stage companies with more-than-sufficient access to capital on national level, as well as sufficient interest from the international Venture Capital and Private Equity community. Dutch capital markets are not the only capitalside sector performing well in the Netherlands:
alternative finance outfits also have a significant impact on the Dutch fintech scene. To illustrate, Dutch P2P lending volumes command fourth position in Europe. And while in other countries consumer loans prevail, business lending constitutes the major part of this area. Together, these mentioned categories cover about half of the market. All of the above are solid indicators of the Netherlands’ flourishing fintech scene but just like with successful companies, what makes the Dutch ecosystem thrive are its people. Talented people from all over the world come to the Netherlands to live and work, with the country ranking sixth in the 2017 IMD World Talent Ranking and ninth in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index. Specifically, the Netherlands has increasingly been attracting tech talent, which is important in the growing digital world we live in. Additionally, the Netherlands works on fostering the tech talent pool by launching initiatives where graduates can take coding classes and earn hands-on experience at relevant start-ups. Looking towards the future, the Dutch fintech landscape has the ability to grow to immeasurable heights. This is the case because the financial industry is becoming a key driver of growth for both the traditional and digital economy in the Netherlands, with its incumbent actors alongside new entrants and service provider, creating a diverse backdrop for fintech innovation. Thus, the future is bright for Dutch fintech, and it will be exciting to see how it develops while it continues to transform how people live and work.
Holland FinTech’s comprehensive guide to the Dutch Fintech sector - The Dutch FinTech Navigator - is available on site.
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