As 2021 draws to a close, the fintech sector is more popular than ever. With fintech businesses coming in many forms with numerous products and services, the industry is predicted to be worth over $382 million by 2027.
In light of this, Utility Bidder has revealed the most influential fintech companies this year. Their research analysed measures including funding, valuation, social following, and online visibility to determine the biggest and best fintechs of 2021.
The 10 most influential fintech companies are:
Robinhood – $5.6 bn funding – $11.7 bn valuation – Influence score 7.22
Stripe – $2.2 bn funding – $95 bn valuation – Influence score 6.07
Kraken – $133 m funding – $20 bn Valuation – Influence Score 5.64
Klarna – $2.2 bn funding – $31 bn Valuation – Influence Score 4.9
Wise – $542 m funding – $11 bn Valuation – Influence Score 3.12
Current – $403 m funding – $2.2 bn Valuation – Influence Score 2.82
Chime – $1.5 bn funding – $1.4 bn Valuation – Influence Score 2.5
Gemini – n/a funding – $5 bn valuation – Influence Score 2.33
Carta – $692 m funding – $6.8 bn valuation – Influence Score 2.00
BlockFi – $504 m funding – $3 bn valuation – Influence Score1.95
The analysis found that Robinhood is the most influential fintech company of 2021, with the trading and investment app scoring 7.22/10 in the fintech influence ranking. This is largely because of its high annual search volume, suggesting it’s the most publicly sought after fintech company. It also raised the greatest VC funding totalling $5.6 billion.
It should be noted that some of the funding is accounted for by the emergency funds raised after the GameStock trading frenzy earlier this year, but it’s clear that Robinhood is one of the major players in the fintech world, with over 13 million users using the app to invest in stocks and funds commission-free.
The company with the highest valuation is Stripe, an online payment service based in San Francisco. The company is currently valued at $95 billion which is 43 times more than its funding of $2.2 billion.
Second place goes to Stripe, the software as a service company that has changed the game when it comes to payments, with no monthly or setup fees and no hidden costs. The company has the highest valuation of $95bn having experienced rapid growth over the past few years.
In third is Kraken, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world and also was the most followed fintech company on the list, with a Twitter following of over 780,000.
Finally, buy now pay later giant, Klarna, came in at fourth place, showcasing just how big the BNPL market is with people all over the globe adopting the payment method this year.
Klarna has been adopted by a host of the biggest retailers in the world and has benefited from consumers flocking to e-commerce in their droves in the last year throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
To find out more information on the full list, click here.
