The ever-flourishing Fintech scene is beginning to see a shift away from predominantly disruptive technology companies, to more enabling technology companies – those who act as service providers to financial institutions.
That is according to a Fintech 100 list announced today.
Showcasing the top 50 established Fintech companies from across the world, as well as the top 50 ‘emerging stars’ to watch in the future, the Fintech 100 list comprises of nine Australian companies in total – two in the established portion (Society One and Prospa) and seven in the ‘ones-to-watch’ section.
There are 25 ‘enablers’ on the emerging star list, compared to just seven in 2014.
The list is the result of a collaboration between KPMG Fintech and H2 Ventures (the venture capital firm who announced a partnership with First State Super just last week) that garnered it’s final 100 from extensive research and analysis around five factors: total capital raised; rate of capital raised; geographic and sector diversity; consumer and marketplace traction and; Xfactor – the degree of product, service and business model innovation used.
H2 Ventures founding-partner Toby Heap said the fact that the emerging stars are mostly enabling technology companies, offering services to traditional banks, points to the fact that financial institutions are starting to realise that they are being disrupted, and fast.
“Frankly we think there’s a lot of interest [in the enablers] because banks [as they being to realise they are being disrupted] will suddenly get much more active in asking ‘who can help us to deal with this’?” Mr Heap said.
From his work and travels, Mr Heap says that he still meets the heads of innovation at big banks who often deep down still don’t believe their industry will be disrupted in the same way other industries have been.
“That’s a big gamble to take,” he added.
With a collective US$10+ billion raised in funding across the Fintech 100 list, Mr Heap concluded that the list is full of companies with serious firepower behind them.
“We’re not talking about a little startup that, maybe one day will do something – these are pretty serious players.”
The listing also highlights that China is leading the way in the sector, with the number one spot going to online insurer ZhongAn, one of seven Chinese companies listed in total.
It was also highlighted that insurance is finding its Fintech footing, with the top two spots going to the category.