KMPG’s Fintech 100: The Diversity among the World’s Top 10 Fintechs
Following our two blog post on the geographical spread and division by sectors of the 50 most successful companies in the Fintech 100 ranking done by KPMG, today, we continue our series with an analysis of the diversity of the top ten leading Fintech startups. We will compare the locations, sectors, year created, size, and investments of the ten Fintechs, looking at the differences in each category and determining any factors of commonality.
Location
Although the digital hiring platform untapt determines New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, London, Silicon Valley, Dublin, and Sydney as the hubs for Fintech, the top ten companies in the ranking are not clustered near a particular location. Instead, they are spread throughout the United Kingdom, China, Germany, Israel, Sweden, and the United States. The variety of sites shows that many areas in the world are open to new Fintech ideas. With no particular hub for the Fintech world, a great opportunity to enter the industry is present as many more locations are ready to be taken by visionaries wanting to change the financial sphere.
Sector
The sectors of the Fintechs vary substantially. Some of the Fintechs are in the Insurance sphere while others are in Payments, Investment, Retail Banking, Lending, and Crowdfunding. However, some of the sectors analyzed in our second blog post of the series are missing from the top ten.
Year Created and Size
Diversity in the years the top ten were created also exists. Ranging from 2005 to 2014, those Fintechs have each developed at a different speed. Most of the Fintechs, however, became active after 2008. According to Boost Companies, “the crisis of 2008 defined a new era for finance. It emphasized the inefficiency of the banking system,” making the rise of Fintechs very logical. As for size, some of the companies have more than 1000 employees while others are still at double digit numbers. Thus, we continue to see the independency of each Fintech company as they choose their pace for growth.
Investment
While Statista predicts global investment in Fintech to grow to $8 billion by 2018, no correlation between the amount of investment or the funding rounds in the top ten Fintechs and their position in KPMG’s ranking is visible. From the disclosed data in CrunchBase, we see that the companies included have very different strategies when it comes to investments. This shows that companies can be successful by choosing the right strategy for their needs while there is no uniform strategy for the Fintech sector as a whole.
As the Fintech industry grows more diverse, innovation and creativity become the key players in the development of new ideas. This blog post portrays the incredible reach Fintech has – not only towards one target group, but towards many all over the world. For the future, however, curiosity drives us to think about which Fintech sector will overcome all barriers and establish leading companies in the financial industry.