The 20 Largest Fintech Companies in the World
There is no easy way to measure the size of a company. Instead, the most convenient shorthand would be measuring the value of a company. Even then, that has its issues because coming up with fair values for tangible and intangible assets is much easier said than done. Market capitalization is far from perfect because the market is far from being an ideal assessor of value at any particular moment. Still, it is one of the better ones for assessing fintech companies and other companies because it has an understandable basis for it.
What Are the 20 Largest Fintech Companies in the World?
Here is a list of the 20 largest fintech companies based on their market capitalization as of October 16 of 2022:
20. Blockchain.com – $14 Billion
Unsurprisingly, Blockchain.com is involved in blockchain-based tech. Specifically, it provides interested individuals with cryptocurrency-related products and services. One example is the cryptocurrency wallet, while another example is the cryptocurrency exchange.
Blockchain.com is one of the longest-running cryptocurrency financial services companies in existence. Even so, some sources such as NextAdvisor are cautious about using its products and services.
19. Ripple – $15 Billion
Ripple is a network that facilitates currency exchanges, funds transfers, and remittances. It uses a native cryptocurrency called XRP for these transactions. The New York Times reports the SEC sued Ripple plus two Ripple executives for the sale of XRP, which it sees as unregistered securities. Said lawsuit remains unresolved for the time being.
18. Coinbase – About $15 Billion
Coinbase is another cryptocurrency exchange. Like Blockchain.com, it is also one of the longest-running cryptocurrency exchanges. However, Coinbase is notable for being the biggest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange.
Operations-wise, it is interesting for being a true example of a distributed company. That means it has no physical headquarters. Instead, all of its employees are remote employees.
17. Polygon – $20 Billion
Scalability is an issue even for cryptocurrencies. Essentially, more transactions mean more need for infrastructure to enable them. Of course, there are people interested in playing problem-solver whenever and wherever there are sufficiently widespread problems. Polygon is an India-based blockchain scalability platform that exists to help out with the issue of scalability in this context.
16. Chime – $25 Billion
Banks.com describes challenger banks as small retail banks seeking to take on their bigger, better-established counterparts through the clever use of modern technology. Some challenger banks are bigger than others. For instance, Chime has a market capitalization of $25 billion, though to be fair, it is still small when compared with its competitors.
After all, Bank of America has a market capitalization of more than ten times that number. In any case, Chime operates in much the manner that one would expect. It provides interested individuals with personal banking services through their mobile devices. Primarily, it makes its money through interchange fees.
15. FTX – $32 Billion
FTX is yet another cryptocurrency exchange on this list. In its case, it was headquartered in Hong Kong but is now headquartered in the Bahamas. Bloomberg says that happened because of a legal crackdown on cryptocurrencies.
14. Revolut – $33 Billion
Revolut is a British-based challenger bank. Chances are good interested individuals can guess it has its base in London, which is one of the top financial centers in the entire world. A Russian man named Nikolay Storonsky and a Ukrainian man named Vlad Yatsenko founded Revolut in 2015.
Despite that, Alt Fi says the challenger bank has already reached the point of profitability, which is no small achievement for a fintech startup. Furthermore, the company’s founders have revealed plans to expand beyond the United Kingdom, so it will be interesting to see how those efforts work out.
13. Block, Inc. – About $33 Billion
Interested individuals might be more familiar with Block, Inc. under the name Square, Inc. Even now, its products’ names often include “Square,” which makes sense because businesses don’t cast aside built-up brand names without very good reasons for doing so.
Still, Investopedia says its leadership changed its name to Block, Inc. to reflect how much it has grown and how much it still intends to grow. The company has no interest in just assisting small and medium-sized businesses process cash, credit card, and gift card-based payments. It already has several other products and services, which include some that don’t fall under fintech.
12. Gojek – $35 Billion
People often overlook Indonesia. That is a mistake because the country possesses enormous potential, not least because it is the fourth most populated country in the entire world. Naturally, it has homegrown fintech companies tapping into that potential. For instance, there is Gojek, which is not just the country’s first unicorn but also the country’s first decahorn.
With that said, it is important to note that Gojek isn’t quite a fintech company in the way most people imagine the term. It is involved in fintech because it is involved in digital payments. Simultaneously, it is involved in everything from deliveries to ride-hailing, which is the result of its massive expansion over time.
11. Adyen – About $39 Billion
Adyen means “start again” in Sranan Tongo. That is because it is the second startup of the co-founders. Business-wise, Adyen enables businesses to accept mobile payments, POS payments, and e-commerce payments. Adyen has been around since 2006 and profitable since 2011. As such, it is also one of the more established companies on this list.
10. Checkout.com – $40 Billion
Given the name, interested individuals might be able to guess that Checkout.com is involved in processing payments. Simply put, the basic infrastructure needed to make businesses work is important, meaning the work to provide that basic infrastructure can possess enormous profitmaking potential.
Originally, Checkout.com was a Singapore-based company that processed payments for Hong Kong-based businesses. It now operates on a much bigger scale out of the United Kingdom.
For proof, look no further than how its list of clients includes Netflix, Pizza Hut, and even Coinbase. Under those circumstances, it is no wonder The Guardian labeled it the most valuable fintech startup in the United Kingdom. Indeed, that number makes it the most valuable fintech startup throughout Europe.
9. Nubank – $41.5 Billion
Nubank’s name is almost as literal as it can be. After all, it is a challenger bank, meaning it is a new kind of bank made possible by new technologies. In any case, Nubank is much the same as other challenger banks. What makes it special is that it is a well-established company listed as NU on the NYSE.
As a result, Nubank is the most valuable of the challenger banks in existence. Something made possible by its successful wooing of Brazilian consumers. The Rio Times says there is nothing unorthodox about Nubank’s methods in this regard. It is just better at meeting its consumers’ needs than its competitors.
8. Fiserv – $About 63 Billion
Fiserv started in 1984. In those days, it was a data processing organization catering to the U.S. financial services industry. Since then, Fiserv has continued evolving as the world changed around it.
As a result, it is now a provider of fintech services to commercial clients operating in the U.S. financial services industry and beyond. Interested individuals might have heard of its name because it owns the naming rights for the Fiserv Forum over in Milwaukee, WI.
7. Stripe – 74 Billion
Stripe is one of the companies that exist to facilitate e-commerce transactions. To that end, it offers a wide range of fintech products and services.
For example, it has APIs that interested parties can use to incorporate payment processing in their apps and websites. Similarly, it has a platform that helps users register as U.S. corporations and another platform that helps users issue credit cards.
6. PayPal – About $98 Billion
Some people might recognize the name Paypal because it is associated with some well-known figures. One would be Peter Thiel, one of the co-founders of the original company called Confinity.
Another would be Elon Musk, one of the co-founders of the company called x.com, which merged with Confinity in 2000. Regardless, Paypal is also well-known in its own right because it is the most widely-used online payment system. Besides that, it also serves as a payment processor for online sellers and other businesses.
5. Intuit – About $109 Billion
Intuit is another somewhat well-known name. In its case, interested individuals might know it because of its tax preparation software called TurboTax. However, Intuit has other products. Some of these are connected to finance. One example is Mint, which is a personal financial management app.
Another example is CreditKarma, which is a credit monitoring service. Intuit also has one product that is unconnected to finance. That would be an email marketing platform called Mailchimp. Some people might think email marketing is old and out-of-date. In truth, it synergizes well with other online marketing methods, so it still has a place.
People might also be familiar with Intuit because it lobbied against making tax filing easy and free of charge, as reported by Pro Publica and other sources.
4. Tencent – About $125 Billion
Tencent is a Chinese corporation. It is a bit like Gojek in that it is involved in a wide range of businesses, including some that are fintech in nature. One example is Tencent’s involvement in entertainment. It has a unit called Tencent Music involved in music streaming.
Similarly, Tencent has extensive stakes in the video game industry in China and beyond. PCGamer says the company has 100 percent ownership of Riot Games, 40 percent ownership of Epic Games, and 84.3 percent ownership of Supercell Games.
Thanks to those and other investments, Tencent’s video game division is one of the biggest video game companies in the world, with the exact position varying from year to year.
3. Mastercard – About $282 Billion
Mastercard and Visa have been competitors from the start. As the story goes, Bank of America issued the BankAmericard in the late 1950s. Subsequently, several regional bankcard associations came together to create Interbank in the mid-1960s. The BankAmericard went on to become Visa, while Interbank went on to become Mastercard.
At present, Mastercard is the second biggest payment processing company in the world. Its principal business remains the processing of payments made using its branded cards.
2. Ant Financial – $312 Billion
Ant Group is a Chinese fintech company associated with the Alibaba Group. It owns Alipay, a digital payment platform with more than a billion users. Due to this, there was enormous interest when the Ant Group moved to launch an IPO in October 2020, so much so CNBC and other sources expected it to become the biggest IPO in the world at the time.
Then, the Chinese government stopped the process because it was concerned over the Ant Group’s activities. Since then, the company has undergone considerable changes, though it remains enormous. The Ant Group still has plans for an IPO, though these are now reportedly focused on Shanghai and Hong Kong.
1. Visa – About $377 Billion
Visa remains bigger than Mastercard. As a result, if Mastercard occupies the number three position and the Ant Group occupies the number two position, that leaves Visa in the number one position. It is extremely similar to its main competitor because its primary business is the processing of payments made using its branded cards.
Thanks to that, the two companies often move in tandem in response to market trends. With that said, it would be a mistake to too many assumptions about the two companies being in lockstep. There are real differences between Visa and Mastercard, which in turn, means they can perform differently under various circumstances.
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