39 fintech companies and startups to keep in your back pocket
Thanks to advances in mobile technology, the fintech industry has exploded in the last couple of decades. As the tech savvy millennial generation aged, banking and financial options evolved, too, and once rare perks like mobile banking became standard.
But banks aren't the only financial institutions that have made tech-driven changes. Entire markets — from digital loans and mobile stock services to e-commerce payment platforms and digital currency exchanges — are rooted in digital financial access.
To learn more about what the current space looks like, check out these 39 fintech companies and startups to keep an eye on in 2020.
Tala
Industry: Credit, Data, Software
Location: Santa Monica, California
What it does: Tala provides credit access to people in underserved parts of the world like Kenya, the Philippines, Tanzania and Mexico. Through its app, the company employs alternative data to underwrite potential users that have no traditional credit history.
PitchBook
Industry: Venture Capitalism, Investments, Software
Location: Seattle, Washington
What it does: PitchBook is a financial software and data company that provides information about public and private equity markets. The platform enables companies, investors, advisors and professionals to capitalize on new business opportunities via due diligence research on private market intel, fundraising information and source investments.
Avant
Industry: Lending
Location: Chicago, Illinois
What it does: Avant is a loan service for middle-income consumers that offers loans ranging from $2,000-$35,000. The service operates largely as a resource for customers to access funds for things like consolidating debt or paying unexpected bills. Avant requires only a simple application and approves loans in as little as one day.
Braintree
Industry: Payments
Location: Chicago, Illinois
What it does: Braintree, a division of PayPal, provides payment services to businesses of all sizes. Accepting payment types ranging from credit cards to Venmo, its products help companies that operate online and as marketplaces to bolster security, prevent fraud and safeguard user information.
OnDeck
Industry: Lending
Location: New York, New York
What it does: OnDeck provides loan services exclusively to small businesses. Clients can apply for term loans and credit lines online to receive funding fast, often within a day.
Forward Financing
Industry: Fintech
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
What it does: Forward Financing provides working capital to small businesses in the US, using its own proprietary technology to allow businesses access to financing as soon as the very same day. The company has provided over $500 million to over 10,000 growing businesses.
Enfusion
Industry: Software
Location: Chicago, Illinois
What it does: Enfusion's completely integrated investment management platform assists hedge funds, institutional asset managers and family offices with compliance, trading, risk management, operations and even accounting. Its goal in giving clients a complete view of their businesses is to enhance operational efficiency.
Morningstar
Industry: Investment, Research
Location: Chicago, Illinois
What it does: Morningstar provides an array of products and services that connect everyday investors to professional-grade financial research and information so they can make better investment decisions.
Verifi
Industry: Software, Payments
Location: Los Angeles, California
What it does: Verifi offers payment protection solutions and risk management services for companies of all sizes across multiple industries. The company's platform lets cardholders, issuers and merchants access real-time data that provides quicker resolutions. Verifi also helps companies fight and stop chargebacks, securely process payments, battle fraud and increase billings.
Circle
Industry: Cryptocurrency
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
What it does: Circle is a crypto financial company guided by the principal that money should be open and free, but secure. Its products — including a wide selection of coins that allow users to easily transfer money across countries and currencies — help customers invest in new currencies.
Optiver
Industry: Investment
Location: Chicago
What it does: Headquartered in Amsterdam, but with a large presence in Chicago, Optiver, is a trading firm focused on “market making”. Not only does the company facilitate the buying and selling of stocks, bonds, futures, options, etc., but it also builds markets and provides extra liquidity to exchanges all over the world.
TransferWise
Industry: Currency Exchange, Software
Locations: New York and London
What it does: TransferWise moves money through its platform to other users all over the world at mid-market rates and with no unnecessary fees. In addition to individual users, TransferWise can be used by companies to invoice vendors regardless of currency.
Suplari
Industry: Financial Management, Software, Machine Learning
Location: Seattle
What it does: Suplari uses machine learning to help users better manage their costs. Finance, procurement and operations departments can all use the company’s platform to analyze spending trends, hit savings goals and even find areas where money is being inefficiently spent. Wayfair, Nordstrom and Spending Tree are just a few of the companies that use Suplari’s platform to analyze, predict and cut down on costs.
Opploans
Industry: Mortgage, Lending
Location: Chicago
What it does: Opploans makes it easy to apply for personal loans. The application process takes minutes and the lower interest rate loans are issued in a matter of days. Applicants can apply for loans to cover everything from home and car repairs to family bills, medical emergencies and major purchases.
Billtrust
Industry: Payments
Location: Lawrenceville, New Jersey
What it does: Billtrust provides payment cycle management solutions to business services, manufacturing, transportation, distribution and equipment companies. Billtrust aims to accelerate the invoice-to-cash process, automate cash flow, give a company’s customers more flexibility and enhance organizational and operational efficiency.
Gravity Payments
Industry: Payments
Location: Seattle
What it does: Gravity Payments is a payment processing platform for small businesses that features lower rates and flexible processing solutions. The company’s platform streamlines financial transaction processing for everything from credit cards to POS systems and even gift cards.
Venmo
Industry: Payments
Location: New York, Chicago
What it does: Venmo makes it simple to exchange money between friends or even accept payments as a business. Going out to dinner with a friend and don’t want to split the bill with credit cards or cash? Maybe you want to pay your dog walker with something other than a check? Venmo’s app makes it easy to transfer money from your bank account into another users, so you can keep track of payments in real-time.
Coinbase
Industry: Blockchain, Bitcoin
Location: San Francisco, California
What it does: Coinbase is an online platform for buying, selling and managing digital currency that provides users with secure mobile access to their digital assets. Coinbase supports 32 countries and has exchanged more than $150 billion in various forms of digital currency, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin.
Acorns
Industry: Savings, Investment, Mobile
Location: Irvine, California
What it does: Acorns is a savings and investment mobile application. Linked to a user’s financial accounts, it invests change from purchases in a diversified portfolio. Other products and services include IRAs, debit accounts and informational content that enables users to invest automatically and learn as they go.
Chime
Industry: Banking
Location: San Francisco, California
What it does: Chime is a pioneering mobile bank that offers no-fee and automatic savings accounts as well as early payday via direct deposit. With over one million opened accounts, Chime is reportedly one of the fastest growing banks in the United States.
Robinhood
Industry: Stocks
Location: Menlo Park, California
What it does: Robinhood is an investment application that allows users to invest for free from a desktop or mobile device. Because there are no physical locations or individual account management services, Robinhood aims to make investing accessible to would-be traders who can’t quite swing the fees of a traditional brokerage house.
Addepar
Industry: Investments
Location: Mountain View, California
What it does: Addepar is a performance reporting platform used by individuals, private banks and wealth advisors. The platform consolidates and manages all information across the investment world, providing a broader view and allowing investors to make more informed decisions.
Affirm
Industry: Lending
Location: San Francisco, California
What it does: Affirm is a lending platform that allows users to pay for online purchases in small installments. The company offers interest rates as low as zero percent and allows users to choose plans ranging from three to 36 months so they can pay over time for trips, electronics, furniture and more.
Carta
Industry: Investments, Software
Location: Palo Alto, California
What it does: Carta is a management platform for private and public companies as well as investment firms. Its products help businesses manage and track company and employee equity, manage portfolios and back office processes and keep current with SEC and IRS regulations.
Guaranteed Rate
Industry: Mortgages, Lending
Location: Chicago, Illinois
What it does: Guaranteed Rate is a mortgage provider and lending service that offers digital solutions to home buyers and those looking to refinance existing mortgages. The company's digital home mortgage enables customers to receive loan approval as well as upload and sign required documents — all online.
TransUnion
Industry: Credit
Location: Chicago, Illinois
What it does: TransUnion began as a credit reporting agency and now offers multiple financial services and solutions for businesses, governments and individuals. Using data collected from millions of consumers around the world, the company provides deep information that helps consumers, companies and organizations make better financial decisions.
CommonBond
Industry: Lending
Location: New York, New York
What it does: CommonBond works with students throughout their loan journey, from the beginning of their college career to post-graduation refinancing. The company offers a variety of loans for undergraduate and graduate students as well as medical and dental students. CommonBond also partners with Pencils of Promise to cover educational costs for children in the developing world.
Credit Karma
Industry: Credit Reporting
Location: San Francisco, California
What it does: Credit Karma offers users open access to credit scores, monitoring and reports, all for free and as often as a user needs it. Using this data, the site recommends new credit opportunities, loans, auto insurance and can even help dispute credit report errors.
Fundrise
Industry: Real Estate
Location: Washington, D.C.
What it does: Fundrise is a platform helps expand stocks-and-bonds-based portfolios to include real estate investments. Although it features dozens of multi-million dollar real estate projects, a starter portfolios require only a $500 initial investment.
Kabbage
Industry: Lending
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
What it does: Kabbage provides financing options for small businesses online. Because access to capital is a major pain point to small businesses, Kabbage allows companies to grow by hiring more employees, increasing marketing or buying more inventory. The company offers lines of credit up to $250,000 and lets users apply anywhere through its mobile app.
GreenSky
Industry: Loans
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
What it does: GreenSky is a consumer- and business-facing loan service. Besides providing home improvement loans to individuals, the company helps businesses in the healthcare, retail and home improvement markets offer financing options to customers.
Lending Club
Industry: Lending
Location: San Francisco, California
What it does: Lending Club is a peer-to-peer and alternative investing service providing new options for those seeking capital and those looking to invest. Through an online marketplace, investors purchase notes or fractions of loans and borrowers receive funds for such things as debt consolidation and home renovations.
Nerdwallet
Industry: Credit Cards, Mortgages, Insurance, Loans
Location: San Francisco, California
What it does: Nerdwallet provides a host of financial tools and services, including credit card and bank comparison, investing how-tos, loan information and mortgage advice. The company's services help consumers navigate the congested and often confusing worlds of finance, investment, insurance and banking.
Netspend
Industry: Prepaid Cards
Location: Austin, Texas
What it does: Netspend's products allow individuals and businesses to manage money through reloadable prepaid cards. The company's services are especially useful for those who lack traditional bank accounts or rely on alternative banking methods.
Personal Capital
Industry: Software
Location: San Carlos, California
What it does: Personal Capital provides free personal financial tools to help users manage all of their accounts in one place. The platform’s dashboards display insights like net worth, portfolio balances, account transactions, investment returns and spending by account. The company also facilitates access to financial advisors.
SoFi
Industry: Loans, Wealth Management
Location: San Francisco, California
What it does: SoFi provides refinancing, loan and wealth management services. In assessing a user's rates and determining the likelihood of loan repayment, the digital company's algorithm takes into account factors beyond income and credit history. Things like education, career and estimated cash flow are also part of the mix. In addition, SoFi offers benefits for which most institutions charge extra or require large balances, including career services, unemployment protection and financial advising.
Stripe
Industry: Payments, Software
Location: San Francisco, California
What it does: Stripe's internet commerce platform provides tools for marketplaces, subscription services, e-commerce businesses and crowdfunding platforms. Millions of online businesses — including Pinterest, Warby Parker, Kickstarter, Instacart and Squarespace — use the platform to manage payments and structure online billing processes.
Wealthfront
Industry: Investments
Location: Palo Alto, California
What they do: Wealthfront is an automated investment solution designed for millennials. Whether users want to buy a home, take a year off to travel or plan for retirement, Wealthfront helps them plan for the future. The automated investment tool uses passive investing strategies to build a diversified portfolio and maximize returns.
Yapstone
Industry: Payments
Location: Walnut Creek, California
What it does: Yapstone's comprehensive payments platform aims to simplify global transactions and payment integration for industry-specific businesses. It powers leading marketplaces and companies like HomeAway, Evolve Vacation Rental Network and RentPath.
Images via social media, Shutterstock and screenshots of company web pages.