The Fintech 100 list reveals dominance of Chinese-based fintech startups

China-based fintech start-ups rose in the list of the top 100 fintech companies around the world, published by Fintech Innovators, a collaboration between H2 Ventures and KPMG Fintech.

All 100 companies have raised approximately US$1 billion (AU$1.38 billion ). This list reaches a global scale including 40 US companies, 18 from UK, 20 EMEA and 22 from ASPAC.

Top ten companies include ZhongAn (China), Oscar (USA), Wealthfront (USA), Qufenqi (China), Funding Circle (UK), Kreditech (Germany), Avant (USA), Atom Bank (UK), Klarna (Sweden) and OurCrowd (Israel)

The list included 50 emerging financial technology (fintech) companies and 50 established fintech companies. H2 Ventures founding partner Toby Heap noticed the game changing role of insurance companies dominating the list, specifically Chinese-based companies, compared with last year’s list. According to Heap, it has "gone a bit crazy".

WeCash is the only Chinese representative from last year’s list. A total of seven companies are listed this year. These companies include ZhongAn and Qufenqi, both of which made it to the top ten list, and showed the increased venture capital levels and interest in China’s fintech sector.

The Chinese insurance company ZhongAn, being the first on the list, was also mentioned as an example. "They didn't exist when we did the list last year, and they did a US$930 million (AU$1.28 billion) Series A [funding] and a US$10 billion (AU$13.79 billion) valuation in the past year," Heap said.

"It gives you some idea of scale and scope of the market potential in China because people wouldn't be putting that kind of money and those kinds of valuations if they didn't see the potential return on those," he added.

Ian Pollari, KPMG Fintech partner and global co-leader, emphasised the tactics followed by the Chinese companies had a great impact in terms of improvement compared with their performance last year.

"The fact is that this is truly global; we've got 40 companies out of the US. Last year there was a high proportion from the northern hemisphere. We've now got 22 in APAC, which points to the balancing and the fact that fintech is a global dynamic; it's not just simply that all of the growth is going to come out of Silicon Valley," Pollari said.

Australia’s Society One landed in the top 50 established fintechs at 37th, while Prospa is at 33rd. Seven Australian companies stand out in the emerging fintech’s list, including Acorns, Equitise, Moula, Simply Wall St and Stockspot.

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