While not necessarily the financial capital of the United States, Chicago has historically served as an important finance hub. Home to a regional Federal Reserve Bank and the Chicago Stock Exchange, the city is no stranger to financial innovation. Today, the city’s fintech scene is defined by innovation in high-frequency trading, consumer lending and digital asset management. Below are some of the top fintech companies that help shape the financial ecosystem.
Top Fintech Companies in Chicago
- OneMain Financial
- Discover
- Enova
- Guaranteed Rate
- Morningstar
- PEAK6
- tastytrade
Top Fintech Companies in Chicago
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 1968
What it does: Founded over fifty years ago, TransUnion is a credit-reporting agency at its core but its services extend way beyond personal credit numbers. TransUnion offers a variety of products and solutions like customer acquisition, portfolio management, fraud detection and data breach services.
Headquarters: Riverwoods, Illinois
Founded: 1986
What it does: Credit cards statements aren’t the only way people interact with companies like Discover any more. The company also provides a range of banking accounts, personal loans and identity theft protections. Discover has adopted a tech-focused company culture that works on modern mobile apps, streamlined online platforms and e-commerce integrations.
Headquarters: McLean, Virginia
Founded: 1996
What it does: Physical credit cards may seem a little old fashioned with the rise of crypto, money transfer apps like Venmo and phones that can help you check out. But Capital One’s digital team is working behind the scenes to bring advanced technology to the credit card industry, developing an all-digital enrollment systems and managing risk by harnessing big data.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2011
What it does: Taking your investing into your own hands requires a certain level of knowledge, and Tastytrade helps you attain it. With more content than most people could watch in a day, the site provides visitors of all skill levels in-depth visuals on how to invest and trade.
Headquarters: Oak Brook, Illinois
Founded: 1998
What it does: Connamara Systems builds customized products for the financial industry. The company creates user end trading applications, provides the components to launch a regulated exchange and can easily integrate different trading systems. Since 1998, Connamara has created expansive financial platforms for over 100 brokerages, software vendors and trading firms.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 1999
What it does: Geneva Trading uses proprietary technology to support the entire life cycle of a trade. The company supports the trade from the research phase all the way through the post-trade analysis stage. Geneva Trading leverages its reliance on technology and risk management background in order to make informed trading decisions.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2000
What it does: As a generation of digital natives grows older, they’re going to want to use their online savvy in the homebuying process. Guaranteed Rate lets users find home loans from a browser in five minutes. Users can shop for a variety of mortgage and refinance options, and can bypass paperwork by digitally signing mortgage documents and ordering appraisals on the internet.
Headquarters: Dallas, Texas
Founded: 2012
What it does: Apex Fintech Solutions provides the cloud-native infrastructure and tools that enable financial institutions, broker-dealers and wealth management firms to launch and scale digital investing experiences. Its AscendOS ecosystem offers services for trade execution, clearing, custody and real-time ledger management across multiple asset classes. The company supports a broad range of clients, from established advisory firms to emerging fintech startups.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2009
What it does: YCharts is a financial technology platform that provides data-driven investment research engagement tools for advisors and other financial professionals. Its software enables them to turn complex data into tangible insights such as model portfolios and interactive proposals to support investment decision-making and client communication.
Headquarters: Boise, Idaho
Founded: 2004
What it does: Hedge funds have to take on some risk, but they don’t have to be risky. Clearwater Analytics helps manage risk with cloud-based portfolio management software. The company focuses on innovating simpler, more secure ways to make sure your money is working for you.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2013
What it does: While the rise of automated trading has made today’s trading floors a lot quieter, voice is still a vital part of financial markets. Green Key Technologies allows traders to more quickly talk with colleagues thanks to a powerful call dashboard. With automatic transcription and push-to-talk capabilities, traders can easily negotiate big sales or stay informed on which trades are happening around their company.
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Founded: 2017
What it does: SpotOn helps businesses with their payment processing and customer engagement. Restaurants and retailers that use the company’'s app receive payment processing, marketing and customer review data from the point of sale software. Chick-fil-A and Exxonmobil are just two of the global brands that utilize SpotOn in their daily business. SpotOn has an office in Chicago where it recruits heavily for engineering and tech roles.
Headquarters: Austin, Texas
Founded: 1997
What it does: Peak6 is a diversified investments firm that provides liquidity to the U.S. options market. The company relies on the intuition of smart traders but also focuses on proprietary technology, which it provides to clients to help with tasks like tax reporting and transaction processing. While PEAK6 has relocated its headquarters to Austin, it still maintains a significant presence in Chicago.
Headquarters: Glenview, Illinois
Founded: 2000
What it does: SurePayroll ensures that small businesses across industries have all of their payroll needs covered within one user-friendly platform. Perfect for small teams, SurePayroll features multiple ways to pay employees, manage taxes, expedite processes and more so business owners can focus on other important tasks.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2014
What it does: Braviant Holdings uses advanced analytics and big data to solve difficult lending decisions. The company’s patented models provide an insight into a customer’s willingness and ability to repay a loan instead of relying on the traditional credit score method. After analyzing their credit worthiness, Braviant Holdings offers transparent lending products designed to help non-prime borrowers improve their financial health.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2012
What it does: OppFi makes credit more accessible to millions of Americans. Customers can apply for loans on the platform, after which the company’s proprietary AI algorithm analyzes hundreds of attributes and data points to make an approval decision. Launched in 2012, OppFi has provided credit access to over 1.4 million individuals, and at one point was one of Chicago’s fastest growing companies.
Headquarters: Baltimore, Marryland
Founded: 1912
What it does: OneMain focuses on improving the online borrowing experience through transparency and simplicity. The company gives borrowers access to funds for a range of needs like medical expenses, debt consolidation, major purchases or simply for monthly bills.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 1984
What it does: With real-time data about stocks, mutual funds, indexes and more, Morningstar provides independent financial research to a variety of financial companies. The financial analytics firm relies on products built in-house to capture the accurate financial information and results, and relay critical news to investors and advisors.
Headquarters: New York, New York
Founded: 2002
What it does: Hudson River Trading is a quantitative trading firm, relying on mathematical models and data science to research and develop trading algorithms. Each day, the company uses their proprietary algorithms to trade millions of stocks across the global financial markets. Although it is headquartered in New York, Hudson River Trading has 14 global offices, including one in downtown Chicago.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2013
What it does: Rippleshot is using AI to spot fraud, with the goal of reducing losses for banks and merchants. By monitoring millions of transactions, the company is able to spot breaches before they cause widespread harm to consumers. Its technology can also proactively detect compromised credit and debit cards associated with their accounts.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 1935
What it does: As the largest credit union in the state of Illinois, Alliant Credit Union offers users the ability to manage their bank accounts and credit cards online. Alliant provides online services that include financial planning tools and educational resources to help their members access loans, make payments and increase their savings.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2014
What it does: Borrowing money at the lowest interest rate possible is the ideal scenario for any consumer, but lenders want assurance they’ll be paid back. Supernova Companies’ cloud-based platform assesses how likely consumers are to repay their loans and lets them use their investment portfolio as collateral, translating into less risk for banks and lower interest rates for borrowers.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2012
What it does: Pangea Money Transfer offers users the ability to transfer money to friends and family in over 20 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe with the click of a button. Its secure app can even work out exchange rates and send the money to a cash pickup location.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2013
What it does: CardX believes that credit card payments should be more fair for all parties involved, so it created a new payment processing system that passes off the fees and lets merchants keep 100 percent of credit card transactions. Its platform can also help with consumer rights and credit card brand agreement compliance. Additionally, CardX provides point-of-sale terminals and digital checkout pages that integrate into its surcharging compliance platform.
Headquarters: Buffalo Grove, Illinois
Founded: 1986
What it does: GTreasury offers a treasury management suite of solutions that help companies with everything from cash management to risk management. Applying a strategic treasury solution allows customers to work more efficiently and responsibly with their financial resources.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2004
What it does: Enova uses proprietary technology, analytics and customer service capabilities to rapidly evaluate new data sources. Through its machine learning-powered Colossus platform, the company helps consumers and small businesses secure the right amount of credit or financing when and how they need it.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2015
What it does: Paro is a finance outsourcing service, providing a wide variety of finance operations with professionals available hourly. Whether it’s accounting, forecasting, fundraising or reporting, the company provides expertise for any need or project. To match clients with financial experts, Paro leverages its AI platform to find subject matter experts that best fit their needs.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2012
What it does: Avant leverages machine learning to provide credit solutions to the right candidates. Through its platform, the company uses alternative data points to judge credit worthiness, and offers personalized loans and credit cards designed to help customers manage debt.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 1994
What it does: Trading Technologies develops high-performance, cloud-based software for professional traders and financial institutions. Its SaaS platform provides ultra-low-latency tools for executing trades across diverse asset classes, including futures, options, fixed income and digital assets. By integrating high-speed execution and risk management, the company enables global firms to navigate complex market movements in real time.
Headquarters: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Founded: 1989
What it does: As technology evolves, so does trading. IMC is a technology-focused trading firm who creates and applies trading strategies, providing liquidity in over 100 trading venues across the globe. IMC is headquartered in Amsterdam with offices in Chicago and Sydney. Its Chicago office was established in 2000 with just two people and now boasts a team of over 150.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2015
What it does: Bridge Financial Technology provides a cloud-based platform that helps investment advisors manage their day-to-day operations, from account management to reporting, trading and billing. With a focus on ease-of-use, the company provides a fast and efficient system for managing clients.
Headquarters: Sydney, Australia
Founded: 2005
What it does: Ansarada’s AI software manages the flow of confidential information when it comes to mergers and acquisitions, fundraising and IPOs. Based in Sydney, Australia, but with offices in Chicago, London and Vietnam, Ansarada uses software and data management to track portfolios and easily report on workflow efficiency.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 1999
What it does: Envestnet offers a range of options for wealth management professionals. Its tools are used by everyone from asset managers to entire financial institutions, and aid with data aggregation, client billing, estate planning and financial reporting. By allowing for cross-tool integrations and functionality, Envestnet delivers flexibility, accuracy and performance improvements over traditional tools.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 1986
What it does: Optiver facilitates trading with online market making, which involves setting prices on financial instruments to increase the liquidity of 100 global markets. Optiver’'s trading systems lets it react in nanoseconds to market changes and get better pricing on products like listed derivatives, cash equities and bonds.
