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or the past ten years, we’ve published our annual Fintech 50, covering the top private companies that are transforming finance through technology. (Here’s last year’s Fintech 50.) From payments startups and consumer loan apps to fraud prevention firms and cryptocurrency businesses trying to build a new financial system, these companies are improving the efficiency of and people’s access to financial services.
Our Fintech 50 research is a months-long process that involves a team of 10 reporters and editors. We divide the work into fintech subcategories, speak with industry investors, analysts, entrepreneurs and executives, evaluate hundreds of businesses and ultimately choose 50.
We look for companies making a deep impact on consumers and businesses through innovation. This typically means they’re growing faster than competitors, regularly releasing new products or making big strategic improvements—not simply providing the same services year after year.
We don’t base the list solely on quantitative metrics or require a minimum amount of revenue or number of customers. We also don’t have a cap for business size. The companies we select tend to be venture-backed startups, since they’re often best equipped to drive industry change, but we’re happy to consider bootstrapped businesses, too. Public companies or their subsidiaries and businesses without significant operations or headquarters in the U.S. are not eligible for the Fintech 50.
