The fintech startups with the highest market caps are presented below
US 10 most valuable fintech startups. Source: shutterstock.com
The USA is home to half of the world’s unicorn startups. In 2017, CB Insights reported that the odds of becoming a unicorn — a company valued at $1 billion or more — was less than 1% for companies that had raised venture capital. Nevertheless, in 2018 alone, there were 47 tech companies in the US to reach this status, according to data provided by PitchBook. A total of 147 companies were deemed unicorns in the first quarter of 2019, according to a MoneyTree report from PwC and CB Insights. Unicorns have reached a combined value of $582 billion in the first quarter, the highest aggregate value ever recorded.
The country has an extremely favorable environment for aspiring startups due to the huge customer base, fair business-related legislation, and Silicon Valley, which is the epicenter of VCs.
The fintech startups with the highest market caps are presented below.
Top 10 US fintech startups
- Stripe – $22.5B.
- Coinbase – $8B.
- Robinhood – $7.6B.
- SoFi – $4.5B.
- Credit Karma – $3.5B.
- Circle Internet Financial – $3B.
- Affirm – $2.9B.
- Toast – $2.7B.
- Plaid Technologies – $2.65B.
- Brex – $2.6B.
Stripe builds the most powerful and flexible tools for e-commerce. The company combines a payments platform with applications that put revenue data at the heart of business operations. Built for developers, Stripe offers a set of unified APIs and tools that instantly enable businesses to accept and manage online payments. Millions of companies in over 120 countries use Stripe to start, run, and scale their businesses, including those with new business models like crowdfunding, on-demand apps, and marketplaces.
Coinbase is a secure platform that makes it easy to buy, sell, and store cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more. Last year, it has added over 8 million new customers to its client base. The company is a global digital asset exchange company (GDAX), providing a venue to buy and sell digital currencies, as well as send information about those transactions out to the blockchain network to verify those transactions. The platform requires you to link a bank account, credit or debit card to your Coinbase account to purchase cryptocurrencies.
The Robinhood investment app boldly bears the name of the famous “noble” robber who stole money from the rich and gave it to the poor, claiming to be a liberating and disruptive force in the online brokerage industry which, apparently, appropriates too much of their consumers’ money. Robinhood’s clients can invest in stocks, ETFs, shares, options, and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, directly from their phones or desktops. According to various sources, Robinhood’s user base has grown to an approximate number between 4 and 6 million over the past 6 years. The company’s revenues come from interest earned on customers’ cash balances and margin lending, as well as rebates from market makers and trading venues.
Social Finance, Inc. (commonly known as SoFi) is an online personal finance company that provides student loan refinancing, mortgages and personal loans. SoFi offers modern financial products and services that help people borrow, save, spend, invest, and protect their money better. It offers low-cost loans by saving on operating costs through online-only services. They also regularly host member experiences like dinners, happy hours, educational events, so you can connect with members in the SoFi community. All SoFi members can reach their financial goals with free guidance from the company’s team of credentialed advisors.
Credit Karma is an American multinational personal finance company that offers free access to a user’s credit scores, reports, and monitoring. Its other features include free tax preparation, monitoring of unclaimed property databases, and a tool to identify and dispute credit report errors. Credit Karma also provides credit tools, such as a Credit Score Simulator, which simulates the effect of potential financial actions on a user’s credit score; and tailored financial recommendations based on each individual user’s credit profile. Being free for customers is possible as the company earns revenue from lenders, who pay as their services get successfully recommended to clients.
Circle Internet Financial is a crypto finance company that seeks to make money more accessible through its products. The company offers various cryptocurrency solutions: Circle Invest, Circle Pay, Circle Trade, and Poloniex. Circle offers a P2P platform for individuals, institutions and entrepreneurs to use, trade, invest and raise capital with open crypto technologies, fast APIs, and the usage of AI. Their institutional offering includes OTC desk, crypto exchange, and USDC stablecoin. The company has insurance coverage for the crypto assets on its platform and stores a significant portion of customer funds offline.
Affirm empowers shoppers to buy now and pay later in monthly installments and at reasonable interest rates through its transparent financing solutions. The selected partner stores offer the Affirm option at the checkout starting at 0% APR. Those are well-known brands that sell almost everything: from fashion and accessories to travel and education services. Affirm financing is quick, simple, and transparent for both customers and retailers. This year, the company announced a partnership with Walmart that gives shoppers the option of using Affirm to pay for their purchases over time at nearly 4,000 Supercenters nationwide.
Toast is an all-in-one restaurant management system. Toast automatically tracks menu sales, inventory, and labor, and organizes that information into detailed reports that users can access from any internet-connected device. Their restaurant management platform combines POS, hardware, software, and payment processing with a suite of third-party integrations to help restaurateurs improve operations, grow revenue, and delight the guests.
Plaid is a provider of API that power developer of financial services applications and help them connect with user bank accounts. Plaid works with leading innovators and businesses in the US, Canada, and Europe, including Robinhood, Transferwise, Coinbase, and Venmo. Plaid is a registered Account Information Service Provider (AISP) that provides developers with user-permitted bank data such as detailed transaction history and balance data, users’ identity information, account and routing numbers, etc. Their front-end module is easy to customize and is flexible.
Brex is a B2B financial product provider that offers a corporate credit card for technology companies. Brex corporate cards are issued by Emigrant Bank. They require no personal guarantees while offering instant approvals, and modern payment terms. The cards are powered by the Mastercard network with best-in-class fraud protection. Signing up for the product does not affect a credit score which is a huge benefit. E-commerce businesses can get a credit limit at 50-100% of their projected monthly sales, up to $5 million.
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