CB Insights, a private New York based firm with a business analytics platform and database that offers market intelligence on private companies and investor activities, recently published its Fintech 250 (2020), which is its annual ranking of what it considers the “top” private global Fintech companies.
As mentioned in an update shared with CI, this year’s cohort featured 32 Fintech Unicorns or companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more. The report reveals that around $50 billion in aggregate funding has been raised by Fintechs since 2015.
CB Insights claims that it chose the top 250 companies from 16,000 Fintech-focused service providers and 19 different categories. This year’s list includes Affirm, Klarna (Payments / Consumer Lending) / Robinhood, eToro (Investing) / Coinbase, Blockchain.com (Crypto), and other “early-to-late-stage” Fintech startups that are now reshaping how consumers make purchases, save, invest, and spend their earnings.
As mentioned in the report, 32 (or 13%) of the Fintech companies selected are Unicorns.
Some of the key points highlighted in the report included:
“In 2020 year-to-date (YTD), these 250 private companies have raised $10.3B in equity funding across 120 deals (as of 8/26/20). Since 2019, there have been 87 mega-round ($100M+) equity investments to this year’s Fintech 250, with 35 of them in 2020 YTD.”
The report added that around 46% of the 2020 Fintech 250 are located outside the United States. After the US, the United Kingdom is home to the most number of Fintech 250 companies (38), followed by India (20).
The top venture capital investor, according to CB Insights, is Ribbit Capital which is reportedly the “most active” investor in the Fintech 250 companies for 2020. Since 2018, Ribbit has taken part in 45 different deals that involved this particular cohort of firms, which includes BharatPe, Hippo, Nubank, Robinhood, and Upgrade.
As also covered in another report, Grab secured a record $856M Series I during Q1 2020, a round that included participation from investors Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and TIS INTEC Group. Grab is notably the “most well-funded” financial tech company on the Fintech 250 list, having raised around $9.7B through 22 rounds since 2014.
Notably, San Francisco based crypto exchange Coinbase was identified as one of the best digital asset and blockchain firms by CB Insights. As reported in July 2020, Coinbase now claims more than 35 million customers, as new Fintech players enter the digital asset brokerage business.
Six biometrics firms also made it to the list. They include Behavox, BiCatch, HYPR, Onfido, Socure, and Trulioo. Lendio, the largest marketplace in the US for small business loans, also made the CB Insights Fintech 250 list.
Anand Sanwal, CEO at CB Insights, stated:
“We’re proud to, once again, recognize the 250 best private Fintech companies globally. This year’s Fintech 250 represents 25 countries and spans 19 categories—reimagining everything from retail banking and crypto, to insurance and asset management. The previous Fintech 250 class raised more than $22 billion in investor financing and saw more than 20 exits after being recognized, and we expect this year’s class will have similar success as they continue to transform how people and businesses spend, save, borrow and invest their money.”