15 Most Valuable Fintech Startups and Companies in Europe

15 Most Valuable Fintech Startups and Companies in Europe

by March 13, 2019

The fintech ecosystem in Europe is steadily maturing with adoption of digital financial services continuing to grow and key enablers, including consumer acceptance, number of information and communication technologies (ICT) specialists and easiness to start new businesses, evolving positively, according to a newly released B-Hive report on the European landscape report.

The following 15 firms are Europe’s most valuable fintech statups and companies in Europe, according to data from Invyo, CB Insights and the Booster Labs:15 Most Valuable Fintech - Chart3

Adyen – US$8.3B (Netherlands)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

Adyen is a global payment company that allows businesses to accept e-commerce, mobile, and point-of-sale (POS) payments. The company offers merchants online services for accepting electronic payments by payment methods including credit cards, bank based payments such as debit cards, bank transfer, and real-time bank transfers based on online banking.

Adyen is listed on the stock exchange Euronext.

 

BGL Group – US$3B (UK)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

BGL Group is a financial services company based in Orton Southgate, Peterborough, England. Its main lines of business are vehicle and home insurance, with a range of supplementary products such as breakdown cover, legal protection and personal accident cover.

BGL Group’s brands include Comparethemarket.com, LesFurets.com and online life insurer BeagleStreet.com.

Circle – Nearly US$2.9b (Ireland)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

Circle began in Dublin and formally licensed in the UK is a wallet-based service to transfer funds digitally via a mobile app. Circle later expanded its services into crypto-investments with Circle Invest and Circle Trade. After closing its Series E to develop its own USD-backed stablecoin named USDC.

OakNorth – US$2.8B (UK)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

OakNorth is a UK-based fintech company providing property financing and loans to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) using its online platform, Acorn, which leverages machine learning to make lending decisions.

In its most recent round in February 2019 led by SoftBank Vision Fund, OakNorth was valued at US$2.8 billion.

 

N26 – US$2.7B (Germany)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

N26 is a German direct bank, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, that offers its services throughout most of the Eurozone and in the UK. Since launching its first product in January 2015, N26 has processed more than EUR 20 billion in transaction volume. Customers currently hold over EUR 1 billion in N26 accounts. In January, N26 announced a US$300 million Series D funding round.

N26 now plans to launch in Brazil.

 

Klarna – US$2.5B (Sweden)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

Klarna is a Swedish bank that provides online financial services such as payment solutions for online storefronts, direct payments, post purchase payments and more. The company’s core service is to assume stores’ claims for payments and handle customer payments.

In 2017, the company handled about US$21 billion in online sales. About 40% of all e-commerce sales in Sweden goes through Klarna.

 

Funding Circle – US$2.4B (UK)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

Funding Circle is a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending marketplace that allows investors to lend money directly to SMEs. Funding Circle was the first website to use the process of P2P lending for business funding in the UK, and now operates in the UK, US, Germany, and the Netherlands. As of June 2018, the platform had facilitated over GBP 5 billion in loans to SMEs.

The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

 

iZettle – US$2.2B (Sweden)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

iZettle is a Swedish fintech company that offers a range of financial products including payments, POS, funding and partners applications. The company was the first to develop chip-card reader and app for smartphone-based mobile commerce which meets international security requirements.

iZettle was acquired in 2018 by PayPal for approximately US$2.2 billion.

 

Revolut – US$1.7B (UK)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

Revolut is a UK fintech company that offers banking services including a pre-paid debit card, currency exchange, cryptocurrency exchange and P2P payments. The Revolut mobile app supports spending in 150 currencies at the interbank exchange rate and unlimited exchange in 24 fiat currencies with no monthly limit.

Revolut raised US$250 million in April 2018 and reached a total valuation of US$1.7 billion.

 

TransferWise – US$1.6B (UK)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

TransferWise is a London-based money transfer company. TransferWise supports more than 750 currency routes across the world including GBP, USD, EUR, AUD and CAD, and provides multi-currency accounts.

The company boasts over 4 million customers who collectively transfer around US$4 billion per month, and investors that include Richard Branson, Max Levchin, and Peter Thiel. TransferWise raised US$280 million in November 2017 at a US$1.6 billion valuation.

 

Monzo – US$1.3B (UK)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

Monzo is a digital, mobile-only bank based in the UK. Originally operating through a mobile app and a prepaid debit card, in April 2017, the company’s UK banking license restrictions were lifted, enabling it to offer a current account. Monzo was one of the earliest of a number of new app-based challenger banks in the UK and now serves more than a million users.

Monzo is currently looking to launch business accounts and expand to the US.

 

Atom Bank – US$1.2B (UK)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

Atom Bank is a UK-based challenger bank that provides banking services through a smartphone app. The company has no physical outposts. Atom Bank first secured its banking license in June 2015. It joined BACS in January 2019, allowing the company to offer the Direct Debit payment method.

 

Radius Payments Solutions – US$1.1B (UK)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

Radius Payment Solutions is a payment and fleet services company headquartered in Crewe, Cheshire. The company provides fuel card management programs including, assisting major oil companies and fueling network owners with managing and marketing their fuel card programs to running its own multi-branded fuel payment networks.

Radius Payment Solutions operates a technology center in Manchester, which was established in March 2016, and has more than 21 offices in 14 countries.

 

Avaloq – US$1B (Switzerland)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

Based in Switzerland, Avaloq develops and provides software for core banking. The Avaloq Banking Suite consists of a fully integrated, modular banking solution that includes back, middle and front office functionalities. The software system is used by more than 150 banks worldwide.

Avaloq is rapidly expanding worldwide. The company raised US$300 million in 2017 at a US$1 billion valuation.

 

SumUp – US$1B (UK)

Most Valuable Fintech Startup Europe

SumUp is a mobile payments company headquartered in London with offices in Berlin, London, Boulder (CO), Sofia, Amsterdam and São Paulo. The company allows businesses of all sizes to receive payments quickly and simply, both in-store and online. It claims it has over 2,000 companies joining every day internationally and processes more than 100,000 transactions day-by-day.

SumUp merged with competitor Payleven, a Berlin-based mobile payments provider by Rocket Internet in 2016. SumUp reached the unicorn status earlier this year.

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