05/11/15 Update: FinTech Market Map v2.0

Reuben

FinTech_MarketMap_02091505/11/15 UPDATE: As a result of all the great feedback — over 50 comments and suggestions — the map is now 575+ names. This version includes a node for “Capital Markets” software, which I would define as companies that provide technology to institutions (asset managers, pension funds, banks, broker-dealers and other institutional investors) to analyze, access and participate in institutional financial markets. You’ll also find some Capital Markets firms in broader categories such as “Data and Analytics”, “Wealth Management”, and “API / Connectivity” because in many cases these companies serve both institutional and retail / consumer markets.  As always, feedback is very welcome!

Click here for full live map. I’ve been collecting lists of interesting financial technology startups for a while, but mostly they are lost in emails, bookmarks, Evernote and yellow stickies. So a few weeks ago I decided to get organized and start putting together a sector map of “fintech”.

It’s a good time to be doing this

  • Last year fintech firms raised $5.3Bn from VCs, 2x the amount in 2013. Commentators love to debate which city — New York, London or San Francisco — will be the “capital” for fintech. Bottom line is that the funds are flowing.
  • We’ve now had two of the first big fintech IPOs — Lending Club and OnDeck.
  • Fintech innovation is fast, smart and has the potential to disrupt established business models: online marketplaces disintermediate banks; low cost, consumer-friendly investment platforms are attracting assets dramatically faster than traditional asset managers; branchless banks deliver better service at a lower cost to more people; new payment technology provides better security, convenience and customer loyalty.
  • Traditional financial institutions are taking notice and starting to react. Many have (re)started venture funds or labs to make strategic investments. Others have chosen to partner (RBS referring clients to Funding Circle, Jefferies securitizing loans CircleBack, etc). Many more will acquire.
  • This technology makes our lives better.  In the future it will cost less and take less time to make a payment, transfer funds, buy foreign currency or obtain a loan.

So what is FinTech

People use the term “fintech” very differently. Historically it was used to describe technology applied to the middle or back office of banks. Others use it to refer to the innovation that is disrupting traditional financial institutions. I prefer a broad definition:

“Fintech is technology that either enables or delivers financial services.”

This is deliberately broad because I think of fintech as everything from enabling technology (e.g. crm tools for traditional wealth advisors) to the service itself (e.g. robo advisors).  No doubt this definition is not perfect — storage and infrastructure software enable financial services, but that would stretch the concept.

Developing a taxonomy for the categories within fintech is challenging. I won’t claim that this map is perfect, and I hope it will evolve and improve over time. This map is certainly incomplete. I’ve had to start somewhere, so I included the most notable (in a very subjective way) companies in fintech today.

For investors, I hope this map starts to paint a picture of significant themes, spaces that are crowded, and emerging opportunities.

For entrepreneurs, I hope this map provides a guide to the areas of blue ocean or white space, as well as the technologies that could be combined to deliver a new innovative solution.

Please feel free to share this map freely, and submit questions or comments below.

73 thoughts on “05/11/15 Update: FinTech Market Map v2.0”

    2. Hi Reuben, great work on mapping FinTech. We are focused on on-demand cloud-based market data APIs, see Barchart OnDemand (www.barchartondemand.com). Your post on capital markets is also timely, we just announced an event in Chicago to specifically focus on FinTech in financial markets and trading, check out http://www.FinTechChicago.com. FinTEx Chicago a new member association is also taking shape in Chicago, like many other cities…might be a nice addition to add a group on the map for this category of clusters/associations.

      Reply

    3. Hi Reuben,

      Great work. congrats. May I introduce you SlimPay, the first pan-european payment platform dedicated to recurring payments (subscription payments and repeat order payments). We’ve operated more than €2.5bn of payments in 2014. The underlying payment tech we operate are of course Cards payments but more and more paperless direct-debits and mobile payments. We plan to continue our growth by x2/x3 for the next 3 years. SlimPay is also an European Payment Institution, regulated by EBA (European Banking Authority) and acts as the merchant bank.

      Reply

    7. Hello Mr Levy
      Thanks for all the work you put into this – excellent resource

      We are a fundamental valuation site focused on retail investors – Full suite of tools including Query, Backtesting, Forecasting, Collaboration and Valuation
      http://www.stockcalc.com Can provide a demo account if you like (username, password)
      Sincerely
      Brian

      Reply

    8. Hello Mr Levy
      Thanks for all the work you put into this – excellent resource

      We are a fundamental valuation site focused on retail investors – Full suite of tools including Query, Backtesting, Forecasting, Collaboration and Valuation
      http://www.stockcalc.com Can provide a demo account if you like (username, password)
      Sincerely
      Brian

      Reply

  2. Reuben, great overview, very helpful. How about including http://www.wikifolio.com in the community investing section. We operate social trading (or low-cost active alpha if you like); already have more than 300 million EUR invested over the last 2.5 years – and in the process of rolling out beyond Germany&Austria. Greetings from Vienna, Stefan, CCO wikifolio.com

    Reply

  3. Hi Reuben!

    Thanks for your recopilation! Well done!

    I was wondering why “Moven” does not appear on your “Online Banking” section?

    Another suggestion…Would it be possible to have a PDF version of your map? It would be very usefull in order to print it.

    Thanks Again!!!

    Reply

    1. Thanks for this! I had Moven in the wrong spot…has been moved. Unfortunately the way the PDF is generated makes it impossible to read given the number of names.

      Reply

  6. Thanks for putting this together, Reuben – super useful!

    Strands is another FinTech provider of money management tools that fits perfectly under Enterprise Financial Software. Hope to see us in the next version!

    Reply

  8. Great list!

    At the risk of tmi, a lot of notes below:
    – Acorns and WiseBanyan under wealth mgmt if not ther eyet
    – Can add Nvestly, Openfolio, Tipdoff. Might make sense to add Vetr and Investify, too.
    – SigFig also a wealth mgmt tool now (they pivoted slightly)
    – Robinhood under discount brokerage?
    – Is Coinbase on there?
    – RealtyShares and RealCrowd under real estate
    – Could add Aspiration to Illiquid (would this be called “alternatives”?)
    – Yodelee is spelled Yodlee.

    Also, is there any way to make the defunct companies still show up, but in a different color, perhaps? Stockr and Spout are no longer

    Reply

    1. Thank you for the great feedback! Will add the missing ones and fix the others. To keep things clean i will probably remove the shuttered/acquired companies. Version 1.1 will come out Monday.

      Reply

  11. Hello Reuben, great map! Thanks a lot for that. I am working for Kantox and wanted to point out the fact that we are also making payments on behalf of our customers as this is a real selling point: we make supplier payments for free.

    Thanks!

    JG

    Reply

    1. I really struggled with this — FX “transactions” are really just exchange of one currency for another. They necessarily involved settlement, so there are companies like Kantox that have a value prop that includes both exchange and transfer. I don’t know… if you had to pick one, what would you pick?

      Reply

  12. Hi, Reuben
    Here are a few more in the “Wealth Management” space:
    Financial Guard
    iQuantifi
    Jemstep
    Kapitall
    MarketRiders
    NestWealth
    MyPlanIQ

    IMO Addepar isn’t an Advisor platform (competes more with “accounting” platforms like Advent) but
    BlueLeaf
    Upside Advisor
    NestEgg (now art of Vanare)
    are.

    Don’t know where/if you’d put firms like
    Envestnet
    Fortigent
    Orion
    etc. but may be worth considering.

    Reply

    1. Am in the process of figuring out what to do longer term. Currently I’m only using a free version of Mind Meister so can’t even export XLS if I wanted to.

      Reply

  14. Hi Reuben, great work! My name is Michael Chojnacki and I am the co-founder of Closir, an fintech startup in London focused on Investor Relations. We are working on connecting listed company’s IR teams to global institutional investors. Our focus now is Emerging Markets. I would be really glad if you add us on to the next update of your map. We would probably fit in your Investment Community branch best. Thanks mate . Michael @mikechoj

    Reply

  15. Would be useful to see a cut by location (city) if it’s available. Any chance you’re open to sharing raw data?

    Reply

  16. Hi Reuben, great list.

    A few additions, all based in Asia and kicking:

    – Dragon Wealth (Wealth Management)
    – Fastacash (Money Transfer)
    – InfoTrie (Data and Analytics)
    – Moneythor (API/Connectivity)
    – Sqreem (Data and Analytics)
    – StockSpot (Wealth Management)
    – WeInvest (Wealth Management)

    Reply

  17. Hello Reuben, fantastic map! Thanks a lot for that. I am working for InvestGlass which is a white labelled robo advisor for wealth management ! We are based in Switzerland.

    http://www.investglass.com/

    I would be really glad if you add us on to the next update of your map. Let me know if you come to Geneva Switzerland we organise monthly meetups.

    Swiss Financial Technology

    Genève, CH
    269 Thought-leaders

    This is a group for professionals thriving to change the financial technologies. We started this group to gather banks, brokers, asset managers, family office, software develo…

    Next Meetup

    SwissFinancial.Techn­­ology – Eat and Meet #7 – bitcoin and …

    Wednesday, Mar 25, 2015, 12:00 PM
    32 Attending

    Check out this Meetup Group →

    Thanks!

    Alexandre

    Reply
  20. Pingback: Top 130 Fintech startups

  22. Hi Reuben,

    Great work. congrats. May I introduce you SlimPay, the first pan-european payment platform dedicated
    to recurring payments (subscription payments and repeat order payments). Should be under “payment platform”.

    http://www.slimpay.com

    We’ve operated more than €2.5bn of payments in 2014. We plan to continue our growth by x2/x3 for the next 3 years.

    Reply

  25. Hi Reuben, this has been massively helpful for me as. Thank you for putting together the list!

    I know that someone else has already asked about exporting the list to PDF, which I appreciate would be difficult due to the sheer scale of the map, but what about a list on excel or similar? Is that something you have already put together?

    Reply

  27. Hi Reuben,

    I am only picking this up now via Linkedin. This is very interesting take on the market. I imagine this will keep growing as will the categories and sub-categories. May I as that you please take a look at http://www.datactics.com ?

    Datactics is a provider of software in the areas of data quality and matching. Recently we have been doing a lot of work with getting data in good shape for financial regulations and standards.

    Regards,

    Kieran

    Reply

  28. Hi Reuben

    Impressive List and effort. At the moment the Data & Analytics head does not have any sub-categories which makes all the players appear as competitors. It would be great if we can add sub-categories like Data Cleansing & Transformation, Data Quality, Trade & Market Analytics, Visualizations & Charting etc

    Also can i request you to look at http://pellustro.com which is essentially a cloud based benchmarking analytics platform for enterprise data initiatives within financial services.

    thanks

    Reply
  33. Pingback: Fintech Taxonomy Map - Vedanvi -

  34. Hi Reuben, great job! If you want, add to the map Inversorcolectivo.com an equity, debt and real estate crowdfunding platform focused on Latin America.
    Many thanks,
    Andrés.

    Reply

  35. Hello Reuben
    Great map!
    Can you add us please, we are in social media listening, sentiment analysis, pattern recognition, market prediction brandradar.co.uk
    Kind regards
    Mike Handley

    Reply

  36. Hey Reuben, great work.

    You should add AccessPay (www.accesspay.com) we are a 3yr old, multi VC backed, payments disrupter here in the UK with 300+ customers including banks and major corporations!!!

    Cheers

    James

    Reply

  37. Hi – Great work and thank you for providing this. I know this has been asked before; but can we have it in PDF or in a format that can be printed i.e. Excel list.

    Reply

  39. Robo-Advisors: AssetBuilder; Betterment; FinanceScout 24 (FinanceScout 24 Managed Depot); futureadvisor; LearnVest; MoneyFarm; Money on Toast; Nutmeg; Personal Capital; Quirion; Rebalance IRA; Stockspot; Swissquote ePrivate Banking; True Wealth; Vaamo; Wealthfront; Wealthsimple; WiseBanyan

    Robo-Advisor/Automated Investment Service by Existing Wealth Managers: BMO InvestorLine, adviceDirect; Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services; Ritholz Wealth Management – Liftoff; Charles Schwab, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios; TD Ameritrade Institutional

    Technology Vendors for Robo-Advisors/Automated Services: Advizr; iQuantifi; Jemstep Advisor Pro; Narrative science; Riskalyze; Upside; Yseop

    Reply

  40. Hi Reuben,
    Kuarix is a foreign exchange services provider for companies and large individual transaction needs. The Kuarix platform is built upon cutting-edge financial technology to deliver an all-encompassing foreign exchange management service.
    Can we add it on your map.
    Thank You.

    Reply

  41. Hey there Reuben, we appreciate your effort on this. It may just be the most comprehensive map created!

    We couldn’t help but notice that SizeUp, a fintech company out of San Francisco, was not included. Sizeup helps financial institutions better serve their small business customers by providing high-quality business intelligence. SizeUp helps small businesses make better decisions through big data and as a result of SizeUp’s disruptive model it has become a popular Fintech company winning awards, being profiled in the media, and being invited to present at conferences around the world. We are even being used but the White House and Small Business Administration as a solution to boost our economy.

    Thank you!

    Reply

  43. Hello Mr Levy
    Thanks for all the work you put into this – excellent resource

    We are a fundamental valuation site and a Third party integration for TD Ameritrades VEO Open Access platform https://www.stockcalc.com
    Would appreciate being added
    Sincerely
    Brian

    Reply
  44. Pingback: Fintech Taxonomy Map – My Blog

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