The 50 Best Fintech Innovators Report (H2 Ventures)

Summary

• Global fintech financing has grown significantly, more than trebling in the last three years to an estimated US$3 billion annually.p.2
• The report ranks the top 50 global fintech innovators based on total capital raised, rate of capital raising, sub-industry disruption, and a subjective panel evaluation.p.4
• Kabbage makes small business loan decisions within 7 minutes, whereas traditional banks can take weeks.p.6
• During the first three months of 2014, UK technology investment reached 538 million pounds, with Borro receiving the largest funding round of US$112 million.p.12
• Funding Circle has facilitated over £275 million in loans to small and medium-sized enterprises as of 2014.p.16
• Prosper Marketplace Inc. operates a peer-to-peer lending platform with over 2 million members and more than $1 billion in funded loans.p.19
• M-Pesa has 18.1 million global customers and 13 million active users in Kenya, handling 50% of the country's GDP.p.52

Key insights

1. Venture capital investment levels serve as a relevant indicator of enduring competitive advantage and innovation capacity in the financial services sector.p.2
2. Integrating non-traditional data sources such as social media, e-commerce, and shipping logs allows online lenders to evaluate small business creditworthiness rapidly.p.6
3. E-commerce checkout platforms that decouple buying from immediate payment can increase completed merchant transactions by 20 to 30%.p.8
4. Unbanked and underbanked demographics account for an estimated $169 billion annual market in cash-dominant consumer transactions.p.28
5. Discretionary online transaction networks for funds have allowed asset management firms to reduce mutual fund transaction processing costs by over 60%.p.47
6. Automated physical layer switches used in ultra-low latency hardware can cut network latency by approximately 100 times compared to traditional equipment.p.43
7. Solar-powered ATMs can function on 90 per cent less power consumption and operating costs that are one-third of traditional ATMs.p.54