Fintech or financial technology is a form of integration between technology and the financial system. The term fintech initially referred only to the use of technology, such as a computer in the office of a financial company. However, the understanding of fintech then becomes wider when digital technology develops rapidly as it is today. And currently the term fintech is no longer as the digitization of financial company operations but as the digitization of financial services offered to consumers.
Therefore, the term fintech is also used as a business sector in the financial industry. Companies that provide financial or related services to consumers by utilizing digital platforms and the internet are understood as Fintech companies. The term is excluded for banks, which are conventional financial institutions. Although currently commercial banks have digitized the financial services they offer. However, banks are generally not considered as companies engaged in the fintech sector.
Currently there are more than 26,000 fintechs spread throughout the world. This growth is considered very explosive considering the number of fintech in 2019 is only around 12,000. This means that in just 3 years, the number has increased by more than 100%.
Now, of all the large numbers of Fintech, there are only 5 Fintech companies that are considered the largest using a valuation method based on market capitalization. These 5 companies include:
1. Ant Group
Ant Group is a fintech company from China which is an affiliate of the Alibaba Group company. Ant Group is the number one provider of financial services and online payments in the world, with a total of 1.3 billion consumers and 80 million retailers. Ant Group was founded on October 16, 2014, in Hangzhou and is headquartered in Xihu district.
Based on Bloomberg, Ant group has an estimated market valuation of $151 billion. A more accurate valuation value cannot be ascertained, because the Ant Group is still a closed company. The Ant group actually planned an IPO in December 2020. And it has been predicted to be the largest IPO in history with a value of $ 37 billion. However, this plan was thwarted by the Chinese government, due to Jack Ma’s open criticism of the Chinese financial system.
We can see interesting things about the largest fintech company, namely the Ant Group. This company can become the largest fintech company because it provides a wide variety of services, and is the most diverse fintech product among the 4 other companies on this list. Ant Group does make payment services their main product, but they also open access to credit for their clients who are not bankable. Maybe this is why the Ant Group was able to increase its company’s valuation significantly, because it means that the company’s scalability is very wide.
2. Paypal Holding, Inc
Paypal is a Paypal online transfer and payment service provider company founded in December 1998 in America, by Pao Alto. Paypal is headquartered in San Jose, California and has branch offices in many countries. Paypal services have actually been popular for a long time, even before the mushrooming Fintech era as it is now.
The Paypal company is the second largest Fintech company with a market capitalization of $91.29 billion on November 18, 2022. Until now, Paypal’s services continue to develop, most recently the launch of Paypal Credit to provide short-term online loan services. Paypal until now has a user base of up to 420 million worldwide.
3. Stripe, Inc
Stripe is a fintech company engaged in payment services. Stripe gives businesses and individuals the ability to receive and send payments online. This company was founded in 2010 in San Francisco, United States.
In 2021, Stripe managed to record fantastic revenue, amounting to $ 12 billion. With an estimated market valuation of up to $74 billion, Stripe is the third fintech company in the world after Ant group and Paypal.
4. Fishers, Inc
Fiservs, Inc. is a global fintech company engaged in financial technology innovation. Fiservs clients are not individuals, they are companies in the field of financial services, such as banks, securities, financial institutions and the like. Fiservs currently has 16 thousand clients from various countries around the world and a total of 44 thousand employees.
Fiservs was founded on July 31, 1984, in Brookfield, Wisconsin, United States of America. And until now the company is still headquartered there. Fiservs is the fourth largest fintech based on company valuation. The company, as of November 26, has a market capitalization value of $65.08 billion.
5. Adyen N.V
Adyen NV is a fintech company from the Netherlands engaged in providing payment services and other related services. The company was founded in 2006 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Ayden NV provides their services to retail, e-commerce and other businesses across a variety of industries.
Adyen NV is ranked 5th as the largest Fintech company in the world based on market capitalization. Adyen NV as of November 26, 2022, has a market capitalization value of $48.18 billion.
Summary
Fintech or financial technology companies are indeed growing to become a new industry in the global business arena. Actually, the business concept of fintech is not a new business concept, because it is usually within the scope of:
* Means of payment
* Payment services
* Credit
These three forms of business are nothing new. But these three business models are “polished” with a touch of digital technology so that they become very accessible to anyone and packaged in such a way that they can attract a lot of consumers to use them. One small example, let’s try shopping in e-commerce, surely there are many fintech services that offer the convenience of shopping with only installments. In effect, the price of goods looks cheap, and if someone is consumptive, it will be easier to do shopping.
So, the 5 fintech companies are the top global rankings as the largest fintech companies based on market capitalization. 3 of these companies are public companies whose shares are traded on the stock exchange, so their market capitalization values can be checked in real-time. While the remaining 2, namely Ant Group and Stripe, Inc. are private companies, where the latest reports regarding company valuations cannot always be obtained. So the data presented is an estimate that may be slightly off the mark of the actual market capitalization.
