The top 5 Fintech companies in the UK
The rise of fintech has been rapid. With this rising growth, the industry is continuously finding new solutions to make financial services to businesses and consumers accessible, wherever, whenever. The most notable of tech companies to see outstanding growth are cryptocurrency wallets; which use artificial intelligence, blockchain and automation technologies.
The fintech industry is currently the UK’s strongest startup sector, with over 1,600 high growth Fintech companies; and more venture capital investment than any other industry.
Due to the rapid growth and success of fintech companies and the industry in general, this could pose a threat to traditional banking and financial services companies.
Which companies are leading the way in this revolution?
Revolut
Revolut was founded in 2015. The British financial technology company currently has over 18 million customers, and is available to use in 29 different countries. Users are able to track and send money, trade cryptocurrency amongst other transactions. Revolut offers several plans including Standard, Plus, Premium and Metal accounts.
Revolut has recently teamed up with Salesforce to help grow business.
In December 2021, Revolut Bank was granted a full banking licence by the European Central Bank. Revolut has £1.27b in equity investment already secured.
Monzo
Just like Revolut, Monzo is an operating challenger bank that was established in the mid 2010’s (2015). Monzo is one of the most recognisable app-based banks in the UK. They currently employ over 1,600 people across offices in London and Wales. Users can benefit from a choice of three plans: Standard, Plus or Premium. Monzo’s Premium plan includes benefits such as travel insurance and free abroad withdrawal of up to £600 every 30 days.
Despite the current crash in the market, Monzo are still planning to go ahead with their crypto investment plans.
Monzo has an impressive 17 equity rounds under its belt, securing £927m in investment so far, with investors including Accel and Coatue Management.
OakNorth Bank
Founded in 2013, OakNorth Bank was designed ‘for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs’, providing them with business loans and property finance, between £500k and £45m.
OakNorth targets their loans to businesses which contribute to economic and employment growth, but struggle to access fast, flexible debt finance.
OakNorth recently completed £1.4m loan to Newcastle based automotive manufacturer to support future growth.
Businesses who borrow from OakNorth can attend credit committees to discuss their business’ growth plans and funding requirements directly with decision makers. In addition to committees, borrowers can benefit from a range of business savings accounts from OakNorth. The fintech company has raised a staggering £637m worth of investment thus far.
Checkout.com
Based in North London, checkout.com was launched in 2012, developing software to help businesses process their online payments in multiple currencies, with over 150 different currencies available. In the last decade, checkout.com have grown to over 1700 employees in 19 global offices.
Amongst checkout.com’s main priorities is risk management. Checkout.com provides a machine learning model that’s trained to identify potentially risky transactions.
Checkout.com was awarded Europe’s top unicorn company in January 2021, after tripling its valuation to $15bn.
Starling Bank
Based in the City of London, Starling Bank was voted the Best British Bank for four consecutive years from 2018 to 2021. Starling have opened more than 2.9 million customer accounts.
Starling also provides B2B banking and payments services through its Banking-as-a-Service model based on the proprietary technology platform that it uses to power its own bank. Amongst their services, they offer various consumer accounts (personal, joint, business and Euro) as well as business accounts. Starling Bank updated their spending insights tool to help clients with budgeting.
Starling Bank made an exceptional profit highest profit of all the companies we have highlighted, reporting £97.6m in its 2021 financial statement.
A buzz has been created by the staggering growth of the Fintech industry and companies in the UK are eager to capitalise on this. During uncertain times, fintech has emerged as a source of hope for recovery and growth amongst UK businesses.
