Chinese companies feature at top of ‘Fintech 100’ list

The annual list includes the 50 leading established fintech companies across the globe, as well as the 50 most intriguing “emerging stars” – new fintechs with bold, disruptive and potentially game-changing ideas. 
From a geographic standpoint, the continued rise of Chinese fintech is indisputable, with Hangzhou-based Ant Financial taking the top spot in the list of 50 established innovators, and Qudian, Lufax and Zhong An also in the top five. 
Oscar, at No 3, is both the highest ranked “insurtech” (insurance-technology firm) and the highest-ranked US-based company. 
In total, the Fintech 100 includes 35 companies from the Americas, 28 from EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), 13 from the United Kingdom, and 24 from the Asia-Pacific region, including 10 from Australia and New Zealand.
The level of funding has continued to rise for the Fintech 100, with the 50 established companies attracting an additional US$14.6 billion (Bt509 billion) of capital since last year’s report, just 12 months ago, an increase of more than 40 per cent from 2015. 
Toby Heap, of H2 Ventures, said: “The 2016 Fintech 100 demonstrates the acceleration of the disruption taking place in the global financial-services industry, with more capital than ever being invested around the world in start-ups and established ventures that are creating new financial products and solutions.
“The continued dominance of China, which rapidly rose last year to take the top spot, tells only part of the story. 
We are seeing the emergence of exciting fintech players in countries across the world, from India to Israel, from Portugal to the Philippines.”
Christopher Saunders, partner in the financial-services practice at KPMG in Thailand, added: “A notable feature of this year’s list is the significant emergence of fintech disrupters, with nine of the top 10 companies occupying this space. 
This is an indication of a rapidly evolving, dynamic global financial technology sector, which is |seeking to realign business |models with customer needs. 
“This is very much part of Thailand’s financial-sector agenda, suggesting a significant opportunity for growth in fintech here.”

Highlights from Fintech 100 report
China now tops the global rankings. In just three years, China’s fintech ventures have gone from only one company included in the 50 top established rankings in 2014 to this year China featuring four of the top five companies and eight of the top 50.
There is greater geographic diversification. The established 50 list includes fintech companies from 17 different countries compared with 13 countries last year, with companies from France, Mexico, South Africa and Singapore appearing for the first time.
Nine of the top 10 companies on the list are fintech “disrupters”, and 46 of the top 50.
Lending has returned to the fore: 32 of the 100 have business models related to lending, up from 22 last year.
Insurtech continues its climb, with 12 insurance fintech companies in this year’s list, almost double last year’s total.
The size of deals or funding rounds above $1 billion have continued to rise, including Ant Financial, Lufax and JD Finance.
The aggregate level of capital raising continues to rise, with the established 50 reaching a total of $14.6 billion of capital raised since last year’s report, an increase of more than 40 per cent from 2015.

Top 10 in the Fintech 100
1. Ant Financial – China 
2. Qudian – China 
3. Oscar – United States
4. Lufax – China 
5. ZhongAn – China 
6. Atom Bank – UK 
7. Kreditech – Germany 
8. Avant – US 
9. Sofi – US 
10. JD Finance – China 

Emerging stars 
The list of top 50 emerging stars for 2016 includes companies from 19 countries, including Chile and the Philippines for the first time.
Fintech Innovators was formed by H2 Ventures, in collaboration with KPMG Fintech, and publishes information on the world’s most successful, exciting and high-impact new companies reshaping the financial-services industry using new technologies.
H2 Ventures is one of the emerging thought leaders in fintech venture-capital investment around the world.