Research Outline

US Fintech Startup Landscape

Goals

To find out what asset classes and business models are performing the best within the fintech startup market in the United States, as well as the market share taken from traditional banks, in order to prepare a presentation to a major bank on the updated fintech startup landscape.

Early Findings

  • Companies noted to be revolutionizing the fintech space in the United States include PitchBook (equity markets), Avant (middle-income lending), OnDeck (small business lending), Forward Financing (small business same day financing), and Morningstar (investor services), to name a few.
  • MoneyLion was named the top emerging tech company by LendIt Fintech (a global and leading event in the financial services innovation industry). MoneyLion “is a leading mobile finance platform that empowers consumers to take control of their financial lives through better products for borrowing, saving, and investing.”
  • Some of the biggest fintech companies in the United Sates (as of February 2019) are Stripe ($22.5B), Coinbase ($8B), Robinhood ($5.6B), Ripple ($5B), SoFi ($4.4B), Credit Karma ($4B), Circle ($3B), Plaid ($2.65B), Avant ($2B), Gusto ($2B), and Zenefits ($2B).
  • Real estate may be the most transformed asset class in fintech in the last decade. Note that farmland (a $2.5B market) remained unchanged and a new startup, FarmTogether, is now innovating in that space.