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Traditionally, fintech unicorns made rare sightings across the globe, but it’s becoming a common breed in today’s fintech ecosystem – with nearly 157 fintech unicorns in the world, valued at a total of $1.8 trillion!
So how many Fintech Unicorns are populating the globe and where? Read ahead…
What are Fintech unicorns?
Unicorns are late-stage startups that have a valuation of more than $1bn, and are either private or have gone through an IPO. In our definition, these are private startups that go from $1bn to listed companies such as Paypal (the granddaddy of Fintech).
Where are Fintech unicorns in the world?
Scanning the global Fintech ecosystem to trace back where the world’s billion-dollar Fintech unicorns are coming from we see that the USA has swept up a massive chunk of the global share. More than half (51%) of the world’s soaring Fintechs come from the United States. To put this in perspective, the USA has more fintech unicorns than all other countries combined.
The USA is home to some of the most valuable private and listed fintech companies by market capitalisation including, Paypal ($327.76 bn), Square ($128.26 bn), Coinbase($54.22 bn), Robinhood ($47.83 bn).
China follows with 11 Fintech unicorns, a fraction of the USA’s army of unicorns. But China holds pride in harboring one of the most valuable fintech giants, Ant Financial worth approximately $312 Billion as of August 2021. Chinese Fintechs are more valuable than their American counterparts with a market cap average of $43 bn or $16 bn excluding Ant Financial, while the USA stands at approximately $11 bn.
Which countries have at least 1 decacorn?
To further break down our findings, let’s dive into an analysis which countries host at least 1 or more fintech Decacorns – companies valued at over $10 billion.
While USA, China and take the lead again it’s remarkable to see the UK in line with an emerging economy like Brazil with 2 fintech decacorns. Brazil, the second-largest fintech hub in Latin America, has huge potential for growth in fintech with opportunities aspiring from a largely unbanked and underbanked population. It could also be one of the countries to rise up the ranks to foster the next breed of fintech unicorns.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- US and China still dominant in the Fintech ecosystem
- Brazil could see itself as home to future fintechunicorns
- But Fintech truly becoming global with a lot of countries represented, which is a new trend
- If we compare to financial institutions, quite a few Fintech startups are comparable to financial institutions, i.e coming of age of Fintech
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