After a complicated 2023, when the market values of financial technology companies reached their lowest levels in years, the industry showed recovery signs in 2024. The valuations of some of the largest private fintech, such as Stripe and Ramp, returned To climb, and the actions of actors that are quoted in the stock market, such as AFFIRM, Coinbase and Robinhood, they went up. That did not prevent global financing for private Fintech from continuing to fall: up to 34,000 million dollars last year, compared to the 42,000 million dollars of 2023 and a record of 144,000 million dollars in 2021, according to CB Insights.
Our new 2025 Fintech list is full of entrepreneurs who have found ways to prosper in this limited environment and sometimes turbulent. Fintech companies that provide services to other companies (most of which are included in our payments categories, company banking and Wall Street and companies) obtained particularly good performance, obtaining 31 of the 50 total positions. These three categories also represent 13 of the 18 companies that made their debut in the Fintech 50 list of this year.
This is the tenth year that we publish the Fintech 50 list, and only two companies (both in the payment business) have figured in each year: Plaid and Stripe.
Among the first to appear on our 2025 list, an example of the Trend of Business Services is Parafin, a lender for small companies in San Francisco founded by three former Robinhood data scientists. Try to subscribe more effectively loans using market data such as Walmart, Dordash and Amazon, instead of depending on credit scores or personal guarantees of the owners. In 2024, Parafin reached 25,000 borrowers and their income doubled to reach 75 million dollars. Squire, a New York company led by former lawyer Songe Laron, is another example. Help barbers to do everything, from programming appointments to accept payments; Last year he prosecuted 740 million dollars in transactions, compared to 590 million 2023.
Dailypay, a newly arrived company led by former Marketing Executive Stacy Greiner, who became executive director last year, allows employees to access their salaries immediately after having won them, instead of waiting to receive a payment check weekly. The company, which has 10 years of existence, has more than 1000 companies, including Hilton and Kroger, as customers, and last year expanded to be available for more than five million employees.
Another company that is launched for the first time, Datavisor, comes from the growing fraud prevention space, where Fintechs try to be more cunning than sophisticated criminals. Co -founded by Chinese immigrants Yinglian Xie and Fang Yu, both with American doctorates in computer science, uses patented automatic learning algorithms to detect fraudulent payments and increased their income by 67 % in 2024, reaching 50 million dollars. Datavisor is one of the eight winning companies of Fintech 50 led by executive directors, as many in the 10 years we have been publishing the list.
An area of business services that did not increase its presence in our list this year: emerging banking companies as a service that help other companies to offer financial products such as current accounts. Following the collapse of Synapse, this financial technology sector still faces an intense regulatory scrutiny and huge barriers for growth. The two companies that oppose this trend are Column and Lead Bank, both included in our list and, significantly, have their own bank statutes.
To select the companies that make up the Fintech 50 list, our team of 10 journalists and editors analyzed hundreds of companies and evaluated everything from business growth and novelty of the products to the diversity of the leadership team. We interviewed both executive directors and experts in the sector. To be considered, emerging companies must have their headquarters or substantial operations in the US. And not be part of a public company.
Emerging personal finance companies also had a strong presence in the Fintech 50 list this year, occupying eight positions. A remarkable newcomer was True Link, which offers a debit card with customizable spending controls for people with dementia, mental health problems or special needs. True Link has 157,000 actors of active cards, his income reached 30 million dollars in 2024 and obtained profits for the second consecutive year.
Profitability arose as another issue: more companies are registering real profits after investors began to demand it. In this year’s list, 13 winners, compared to the eight of last year, say they were profitable according to the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) in the previous year. Money generators range from the real estate capital lender Figure (which operates in the block chain) to the emerging company of Life Ethos and the Tabapay payments.
Some Fintechs categories continued to occupy only a few places on our list, largely as a reflection of the widest challenges facing their industries. The real estate sector only obtained two winners and insurance four. The cryptocurrencies obtained three, although the adoption of digital assets by President Trump and a congress controlled by Republicans will probably be a blessing for the industry this year.
In all categories, loan companies seem to be resurfaceing compared to years ago, when investors and executive directors of the sector shed them frequently. Among our 18 new clients, six are lenders, including ARC, Aven, Bilt, Figure, Imprint and Parafin.
A company had a surprising return after appearing on our list in 2020 and then falling for four years after that: Nova Credit. Founded in 2016, its first product was Credit Passport, a service that allows immigrants to import their credit records from their countries of origin. Lenders like American Express joined because they helped them accept more customers, but when the COVID arrived and immigration stopped abruptly, the demand for Nova’s technology disappeared.
Later, in 2020, the startup took advantage of its experience to launch a second line of business focused on cash flow subscription . Nova cash flow products are now their fastest growing business line, a demonstration of adaptability that has driven a growing number of Fintechs to create sustainable businesses.
With additional information from Nina Bambysheva, Martina Castellanos, Steven Ehrlich, Kelly Phillips Erb, Brandon Kochkodin, Stephen Pastis, Hank Tucker and Francesca Walton.
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
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