With currently 108 unicorns worldwide, the billion-dollar valuation club is nowhere near getting smaller.
According to venture capital tracker CB Insights, the number of new entrants in 2015 should double last year's record, with the total this year to reach more than 76 new unicorns.
This upward trend can be explained by a combination of factors, including the continuously lower cost of launching a tech startup, quicker technology adoption, and the overall faster pace of disruption, Anand Sanwal, CEO and co-founder of CB Insights, said in a webinar put on by the company last week.
But for now, let's focus on the startups that are attacking every product and service line typically offered by banks and financial institutions.
Fintech Unicorns
Based on a report from KPMG and CB Insights, Cointelegraph has compiled a list of 13 FinTech startups that are valued over US$1 billion, or the so-called FinTech unicorns.
Overall, investors have mostly placed their bets on payments startups. However, other attractive markets include lending, insurance, remittance and personal finance management.
Among the venture capital investors that are putting big money on these market disrupters, several names are redundant: Khosla Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Accel Partners, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Felicis Ventures, to name a few.
| Company | Country | Industry | Valuation (billion USD) | Select Investors |
| Square Inc. | US | Mobile Payments | 6 | First Round Capital, Citi Ventures, GGV Capital |
| Stripe | US | Online Payments | 3.5 | Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Lowercase Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Union Square Ventures |
| Powa Technologies | UK | E-Commerce | 2.7 | Bright Station Ventures, Wellington Management |
| Prosper | US | P2P Lending | 1.9 | Benchmark, Accel Partners, DAG Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Sequoia Capital |
| Adyen | NL | Payments | 1.5 | Felicis Ventures, Index Ventures, Temasek Holdings |
| Oscar | US | Health Insurance | 1.5 | BoxGroup, Formation8, Khosla Ventures |
| Deem | US | E-Commerce | 1.35 | Empire Ventures, Foundational Capital, Oak Investment Partners |
| Social Finance | US | Student Loan Refinancing | 1.3 | Baseline Ventures, Doll Capital Management, Institutional Venture Partners, Third Point, Wellington Management |
| TransferWise | UK | Remittance | 1 | Andreessen Horowitz, IA Ventures, Index Ventures, SV Angel |
| Shopify | CA | E-Commerce | 1 | FirstMark Capital, Felicis Ventures, Insight Venture Partners |
| Credit Karma | US | Financial Management Platform | 1 | Felicis Ventures, SV Angel, Founders Fund |
| Klarna | SE | Online Payments | 1 | Institutional Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic |
| Funding Circle | UK | P2P Lending | 1 | Accel Partners, Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Union Square Ventures |
| Source: | ||||
The Booming FinTech Scene
With almost US$14 billion injected into the space in the past 12 months, investors are obviously taking an increasing interest in FinTechs.
In the webinar on May 19, Sanwal discussed these new trends and the emerging players that are challenging our traditional financial services.
"In 2010, there were 223 unique investors within the FinTech space, and these are VCs only, not the angels, accelerators, or other types of investors that we track. In 2015, [...] there are now 894 active investors. Investors see opportunities, they see blood in the space; it's a massive industry."
While the overall industry is burgeoning, a few niche markets are particularly attracting "smart money" from top VC investors. These focus areas include payments, personal finance management, lending and Bitcoin, Sanwal pointed out, with notable investments into Coinbase, Stripe, Funding Circle, Zuora and Prosper.
Beyond VC firms, players from diverse industries and "unusual suspects" are making significant moves, as well. These nonfinancial services corporations that are betting on FinTechs include Google — which has invested in 37 FinTech deals in the last 5 years — Intel and Salesforce, as well as Japanese SoftBank, Chinese RenRen and Ping An Insurance, and South African Naspers.
To access the webinar recording and slides, visit CB Insights.