The Fintech 100 – China dominates, Singapore enters the list

• China fintech continues to dominate, with four of the top five companies
• Singapore is in the Established 50 list for the first time

 

FINTECH Innovators, a collaboration between fintech investment firm, H2 Ventures and KPMG Fintech, on Oct 24 announced its list of the world’s leading fintech innovators, the 2016 Fintech 100.

The annual list includes the leading 50 Established fintech companies across the globe, as well as the most intriguing 50 ‘Emerging Stars’ – exciting new fintechs with bold, disruptive and potentially game-changing ideas.

Key highlights include:

• China fintech continues to dominate, with four of the top five companies on the list
• Global competition is expanding, with 17 countries represented in the top 50 Established companies, up from 13 last year, and 22 countries in the full Fintech 100.
• The Established 50 list comprises of fintech companies from 17 different countries compared to 13 countries last year, with companies from France, Mexico, South Africa and Singapore included for the first time
• New fintech subsectors have emerged, including regtech (regulatory technology), with nine companies on the list
• Insurtech continues its ascent, with 12 companies, almost double last year’s total.

From a geographic standpoint, the continued rise of Chinese fintech is indisputable, with Hangzhou-based Ant Financial taking the top spot in the 50 Established Innovators list, and Qudian, Lufax and Zhong An also in the top five.

Oscar, at number three, is both the highest ranked insurtech and the highest ranked US-based company.

In total, the Fintech 100 includes 35 companies from the Americas, 28 companies from EMEA, plus 13 from the UK, and 24 companies from the Asia-Pacific region, including 10 from Australia and New Zealand.

KPMG Singapore head of Financial Services Advisory Chia Tek Yew said that, “It’s interesting to see how fintechs are transitioning from being a single ‘product’ disruptor to a fully-fledged financial player.

“One example is Ant Financial, which started as Alipay to help with payments within the Alibaba marketplace, and is now a player that provides multiple products such as deposits, loans, and assets under management.”

“These disruptors will start small and then expand its product range or geographic reach. They will typically seek out similar markets with the same unmet needs to scale their business. In the near future, I anticipate a growing number of such companies entering markets such as Indonesia.”

The level of funding has continued to rise for the Fintech 100, with the 50 Established companies attracting an additional US$14.6 billion (RM60.87 billion) of capital since last year’s report just 12 months ago, an increase of more than 40% from 2015.

According to Toby Heap of H2 Ventures, “the 2016 Fintech 100 demonstrates the acceleration of the disruption taking place in the global financial services industry, with more capital than ever being invested around the world in startups and established ventures that are creating new financial products and solutions.”

“The continued dominance of China, which rapidly rose last year to take the top spot, tells only part of the story. We are seeing the emergence of exciting fintech players in countries across the world, from India to Israel, from Portugal to the Philippines.”

Ian Pollari, Global co-lead of KPMG’s Fintech practice added: “One of the striking features of the year’s list is the growing success of fintech disruptors, with more than 90% of the top 50 ventures challenging incumbents or traditional business models.”

“The Fintech 100 companies are increasingly attracting a greater share of capital as well, raising more than 65% of total global fintech investment over the past year.”

“The report also highlights a growing and increasingly diverse fintech sector, with the creation of value in new sub-sectors such as regtech and data & analytics, and the continued growth in insurtech and blockchain,” he said.

Next page: Singapore steps up