• China fintech on the rise as ZhongAn tops list 
• Overall fintech investment expected to jump 66% to over US$20 billion in 2015 
• Australia’s SocietyOne and Prospa appear in 50 Established Innovators; and seven Australian startups among 50 Emerging Stars

Featuring among the 50 Established Innovators are Australian peer-to-peer lending platform SocietyOne and online small business lending startup Prospa. An impressive seven startups from Australia’s fast growing fintech ecosystem are among the 50 Emerging Stars: Avoka, Equitise, Metamako, Moula, PromisePay, Simply Wall St, and Stockspot. 

The rise of Chinese fintechs is a standout this year, with Shanghai-based ZhongAn taking the top spot in the 50 Established Innovators list, and Qufengi fourth. Last year WeCash was the only representative from China to appear on the list. This year there are seven Chinese companies in the Fintech 100, reflecting increased venture capital levels and interest in China’s fintech sector. 

Globally, fintech financing has jumped six-fold over the past three years with over US$20 billion estimated to be reached in 2015, a 66% increase on 2014 (US$12 billion). 

The Fintech 100 includes 40 companies from the Americas (40%), 20 companies from the EMEA (20%), 18 companies from the UK (18%), and 22 companies from the Asia-Pacific region 22%), including 10 from Australia and NZ.

Toby Heap, H2 Ventures, commented: “In an industry that will soon be irrevocably changed by the disruptive effect of innovation, the companies doing fintech best are those most likely to succeed. Already, some of the world’s major financial centres are equally becoming known as centres for fintech innovation: London and New York, and more recently Sydney.”

“This year’s Fintech 100 highlights the truly global nature of fintech innovation, with startups from 20 countries on the list. Many of these companies have an ‘X-factor’ that has captured our attention – exciting new fintechs with bold, disruptive and potentially game-changing ideas.”

Ian Pollari, Global co-lead of KPMG’s Fintech practice added: “The speed and energy with which fintech innovation is impacting financial services is gathering global momentum on many measures.  This year’s report underscores the international nature of fintech, with the broad geographic diversity of the fintech companies featured. It is the Fintech 100 companies that are pushing the frontier of new products, services, technology and business models in financial services. Those within the financial services sector who ignore the innovations of the Fintech 100 cohort do so at their peril.”

“The report identifies payments as being the part of the fintech sector most at risk of digital disruption and we also note the rapid emergence of insurance fintech.  It is also positive to see the development of the fintech ‘enablers’, which are seeking to provide services and capabilities to financial institutions. This needs to form a core part of how incumbent’s seek to respond to the threats and opportunities that come from disruption,” he said. 

1. Funding boom – The Fintech 100 companies have collectively raised in excess of US$10 billion.
2. Fintech is now truly a global sector – The list is comprised of 40 US companies, 20 from EMEA, 18 from the UK and 22 from ASPAC.
3. China fintech leads the world – Zhong An, a Chinese company, tops this year’s list, and there are 7 Chinese fintech companies on the list.
4. Australia is punching above its weight – Australia’s Society One and Prospa appear in the top 50 Established fintechs; and there are seven Australian companies in the Emerging Stars list.
5. Payments is most at risk of disruption – Fintech growth in payments, currencies and transactions sees this segment now representing 25% of the Fintech 100, a substantial uplift on last year.
6. Insurance finds its fintech footing – The top two companies on the list are insurance fintechs (with 7 overall, compared to none last year).
7. Shift from disruptors to enablers – There are 25 ‘enablers’ (i.e. service providers to financial institutions) on the list this year, compared to 7 last year.

1. ZhongAn (China) 
2. Oscar (USA) 
3. Wealthfront (USA) 
4. Qufenqi (China) 
5. Funding Circle (UK)
6. Kreditech (Germany)
7. Avant (USA)
8. Atom Bank (UK)
9. Klarna (Sweden)
10. OurCrowd (Israel)

This year ten fintech companies from the emerging list will be invited to attend a KPMG and Matchi Fintech Summit in London on 10-11 February to pitch their ideas to some of the world’s leading financial institutions, venture capital funds and investors.  They will also receive professional services support from KPMG, plus membership and discounted deal-success rates with Matchi, the online fintech match-making platform. 

The ten companies will be announced in advance of the Summit. 

The Fintech 100 were selected following extensive global research and analysis based on data relating to five factors:

1. Total capital raised
2. Rate of capital raising
3. Geographic and sector diversity
4. Consumer and marketplace traction
5. X-factor: degree of product, service and business model innovation (a subjective measure that is applied only with respect to companies appearing on the 50 Emerging Stars list)

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. Founded by brothers Ben and Toby Heap, and based in Sydney, Australia, it invests alongside entrepreneurs and other investors in early stage fintech ventures. H2 Ventures is the manager of the H2 Accelerator - Australia's only dedicated fintech accelerator - and operates out of Sydney's dynamic new fintech hub, Stone & Chalk.

KPMG’s Financial Services practice has launched the global fintech practice in order to leverage international investment activity and capability development in fintech across KPMG member firms. Warren Mead and Ian Pollari, partners with KPMG in the UK and KPMG in Australia respectively, have been appointed as global co-leads of the practice, along with a leadership team including partners from countries including the U.S., U.K., Israel, China & Hong Kong, India and Australia.

Ashford Pritchard

Communications Manager – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, KPMG Australia

Mobile: +61 411 020 680

apritchard1@kpmg.com.au