THE FORBES FINTECH50
Ayasdi MENLO PARK, CA
Big banks use its machine learning technology to analyze their market and operational risks and detect potential money laundering.
FUNDING: $106 million
BONA FIDES: Citigroup, Credit suisse, department of homeland security and lockheed martin are customers
COFOUNDERS: Ceo Gurjeet singh, 37; president Gunnar Carlsson, 66; vp, research, harlan sexton, 64—all stanford mathematics ph.d.s
Behavox NEW YORK CITY
Fast becoming Wall Street’s one-stop AI shop, with algorithms that handle surveillance of email, voice and text data and accompanying data lakes.
FUNDING: $15 million; latest valuation of about $300 million
BONA FIDES: nearly 30 customers, including balyasny asset management, arrowgrass, marshall wace, Tp iCap, Citigroup and anglo american
COFOUNDER & CEO: erkin adylov, 35, a Kyrgyzstan-born former Goldman analyst and hedge fund manager
Betterment NEW YORK CITY
The robo-advice pioneer manages ETF portfolios tailored to an investor’s goals and risk tolerance, held in taxable accounts and/or IRAs for 0.25% of assets a year. Offers customers with at least $100,000 newer hybrid service with access to human financial planners, too, for 0.40% of assets a year.
FUNDING: $275 million; latest valuation of $800 million
BONA FIDES: largest independent robo, managing $15 billion in assets for 400,000 customers
COFOUNDER & CEO: Jon stein, 39, former banking consultant who started betterment when he was just 28
Bitfury AMSTERDAM
The full-service blockchain firm has expanded from bitcoin-mining hardware to launch its own blockchain, plus software to investigate illicit activity using bitcoin. Funding: over $150 million; latest valuation of $1 billion-plus Bona Fides: $500 million in revenue in 2018 CoFounder & Ceo: valery vavilov, 39, a latvian-trained computer scientist
Blend SAN FRANCISCO
The cloud-based software provider allows mortgage applicants to securely share financial data with lenders to cut approval time. Moving into the homeowners’ insurance business.
FUNDING: $160 million; latest valuation of $500 million
BONA FIDES: its software is used to process more than $1 billion in mortgage applications a day
COFOUNDERS: Ceo nima Ghamsari, 33; CTo eugene marinelli, 31
Bolt SAN FRANCISCO
Its mobile-ready checkout software for ecommerce sites incorporates both sales analysis and fraud prevention, cutting both checkout time and fraud.
FUNDING: $20 million
BONA FIDES: launched in early 2018, it already has hundreds of customers and is processing some $500 million in sales a year. users include fraud targets such as jewelry merchants.
COFOUNDER AND CEO: ryan breslow, 24, who dropped out of stanford in 2014 to start bolt
BREX SAN FRANCISCO
Issues a corporate credit card designed for startups, with credit limits based largely on how much cash a company has, rather than an entrepreneur’s personal credit history. Points heavily reward spending on software subscriptions, travel expenses and rideshares.
FUNDING: $215 million; latest valuation of $1.1 billion
BONA FIDES: broke above unicorn $1 billion valuation in just 22 months
COFOUNDERS: Ceo henrique dubugras, 23 (above); Coo pedro franceschi, 22, brazilian-born computer engineers who sold their last startup for tens of millions
Cadre NEW YORK CITY
Online platform enables investors to buy and sell stakes in commercial and multifamily real estate at lower fees. See story, p. 52.
FUNDING: $133 million; latest valuation of $800 million
BONA FIDES: has raised $500 million in equity to fund purchase of more than $2 billion in real estate
FOUNDER & CEO: ryan williams, 30
Carta SAN FRANCISCO
Helps startups (including dozens of unicorns) manage funding rounds and track their ownership, acting as transfer agent on equity. Plans to expand to private equity and real estate.
FUNDING: $148 million; latest valuation of $800 million
BONA FIDES: Tracking $500 billionplus in company equity, including for robinhood, slack and Coinbase
COFOUNDER & CEO: henry ward, 42, who launched it as eshares in 2012
Chime SAN FRANCISCO
Mobile-first bank offers checking accounts, debit cards and service that rounds up purchases, depositing extra pennies in savings. Members can tap into direct-deposited pay two days early with no fee.
FUNDING: $105 million; latest valuation of about $500 million
BONA FIDES: more than 2.6 million accounts, with 350,000 being added a month
COFOUNDERS: Ceo Chris britt, 45; CTo ryan King, 42
Circle BOSTON
Offers cryptocurrency trading, investing and payment services. Last October partnered with Coinbase to launch USDC stablecoin, a crypto asset using the Ethereum blockchain and backed by U.S. dollars.
FUNDING: $246 million; latest valuation of $3 billion
BONA FIDES: 8 million customers from over 100 countries; USDC has a recent market value of $335 million
COFOUNDER & CEO: Jeremy allaire, 47, also founded publicly traded brightcove online video platform
Coinbase SAN FRANCISCO
Expanding beyond its roots as a bitcoin wallet and retail exchange, it now offers cryptocurrency custody and professional and institutional trading platforms.
FUNDING: $525 million; latest valuation of $8 billion
BONA FIDES: has opened 25 million wallets
COFOUNDER & CEO: brian armstrong, 36; his holdings in Coinbase make him a billionaire
Credit Karma SAN FRANCISCO
Offers a growing suite of free services, including credit scores, taxprep software and help fixing credit report errors. Earns referral fees when users bite on personalized offers for credit cards and loans.
FUNDING: $869 million; latest valuation of $4 billion
BONA FIDES: 85 million “members”
COFOUNDERS: Ceo Kenneth lin, 43 (above); chief revenue officer nichole mustard, 45; CTo ryan Graciano, 37
Cross River FORT LEE, NJ
Born from a small New Jersey community bank, it handles payments and deposits for Stripe and TransferWise and creates notes behind loans issued through Affirm and Quicken’s RocketLoans.
FUNDING: $128 million; latest valuation of $1 billion
BONA FIDES: has originated $20 billion in loans through partners
FOUNDER & CEO: Gilles Gade, 52
Digital Reasoning FRANKLIN, TN
Its machine-learning software extracts meaning from ordinary communications and is used by financial firms to screen employees’ email and instant messages for misconduct.
FUNDING: $110 million
BONA FIDES: users include Goldman sachs, ubs and point72
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT: Tim estes, 39