How many Fintech ventures are there globally?
About 6 months ago, I started to ask that question, thinking that maybe 100 was about the right number – at the time I worried that there would not be enough happening in Fintech to give me the material to write a daily blog -:)
When a couple of people started to say that I should be thinking more like 10x that number, I was surprised, but I started compiling the database.
Today, I am pleased to announce that I have got to over 1,000 in a database where I can search by the market segment, by location, by stage of venture and other criteria. I use this database to do consulting projects. It is bit like the head hunter’s database. So I won’t make it generally available, but in the coming weeks I do plan to post Market Reports where I list ventures in interesting market segments.
From what I am hearing, 2,000 or even 3,000 might be closer to the real universe. Fintech 3,000 has a good ring to it. So, I am really announcing “Fintech 1,000 and growing” as I will be adding new ventures as I find them.
Even if 90% of startups fail, a total universe of 3,000 would mean 300 successful Fintech ventures changing the world. That is a big deal.
Hi Bernard,
Great blogs…I enjoy reading them and very informative!
Just so you know…I’m about to start a couple of days a week in the AML/KYC space with a firm called Sphonic. They’re about 3 years old and have a workflow/data and risk management SaaS solution. I’m being paid by Xchanging who want to go to market exclusively with Sphonic.
I’ve also been approached by a startup called Recordsure. I’ve known the owner for many years and she has asked me to comit more time than I’m able to do but I hope to be working with them as its a great looking product.
If you’d like any info on either of them for your fintech1000 database, please let me know.
All the best, Rick
Sent from my iPad
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Thanks Rick, look forward to catching up soon. Insurance is where the puck is heading – but then you know that 🙂
Bernard,
I believe the number is more around 5000 globally at the moment and growing fast.
If you look at AngelList for example with a few keywords linked to FinTech, you find over 4000 matches: https://angel.co/companies?markets%5B%5D=Financial+Services&markets%5B%5D=Banking&markets%5B%5D=Investment+Management&markets%5B%5D=Fin+Tech&markets%5B%5D=Crowdfunding&markets%5B%5D=Crowd+Funding
I would agree on the 10% being high potential and/or already established.
I am looking forward to reading the report.
Regards,
Thibaut.
Thanks Thibaut. Who knows, it could be 5,000. I am now listing all the Fintech Accelerators that I have found (its an evergreen Page at the top). Each Accelerator has a huge funnel – over 100 to 1 (maybe 500 to 1 in popular Accelerators). I see the 1 (ie the ventures that get into Accelerators and graduate out into VC funding or bootstrap to exit). If I got the 100 into my database it could be 5,000. The amount of deduping is unknown ie some ventures apply to multiple Accelerators. Still figuring out how to do this. If you want to chat about this offline, follow me on Twitter and I will DM you.