THE FORBES FINTECH50
Personal Capital REDWOOD CITY, CA
An online wealth management platform that offers free dashboard to track all your bank and investing accounts plus free planning tools. Paying customers get money management, tax loss harvesting and human financial advisors for tiered fees—0.89% of assets a year up to $1 million, down to 0.49% for assets over $10 million.
FUNDING: $130 million; latest valuation of $660 million
BONA FIDES: manages $8 billion in assets for 19,000 paying customers
CEO: Jay shah, 49, who joined personal Capital from e-loan in 2009
Plaid SAN FRANCISCO
Connects payment apps like Venmo and robos like Betterment to users’ bank accounts to transfer and track funds and speed authentication. Now integrates with 10,000 banks.
FUNDING: $310 million; latest valuation of $2.65 billion
BONA FIDES: a fourth of americans have accounts linked through plaid
COFOUNDER & CEO: Zach perret, 31
Poynt PALO ALTO, CA
Its point-of-sale software and hardware turn dumb credit card readers into smart devices that allow thirdparty developers to build applications on top, e.g., loyalty rewards programs that don’t require shoppers to flash a card.
FUNDING: $132 million; latest valuation of $450 million1
BONA FIDES: 100,000 devices in field
COFOUNDER & CEO: osama bedier, 43, the founder of Google wallet
Remitly SEATTLE
Enables people living in rich nations such as the U.S. and U.K. to make low-cost money transfers to relatives in Mexico, India and other developing countries even if the recipients don’t have bank accounts.
FUNDING: $175 million; latest valuation of $480 million1
BONA FIDES: processing more than $6 billion in transfers annually
COFOUNDER & CEO: matt oppenheimer, 36, who came up with idea while working for barclays in Kenya
Ripple SAN FRANCISCO
Its blockchain-based global settlements network aims to replace SWIFT, the interbank messaging platform. Also has service that lets companies make cross-border payments in XRP, the cryptocurrency created by Ripple’s founders.
FUNDING: $94 million; latest valuation of $5 billion (including Xrp)
BONA FIDES: 200 RippleNet customers, including bank of america and american express
COFOUNDERS: Jed McCaleb, 44; Chris larsen, 58; and arthur britto Ceo: brad Garlinghouse, 48, former aol president
Robinhood MENLO PARK, CA
Offers commission-free trading of stocks, ETFs, options and cryptocurrencies through a mobile app and online. Gold service, starting at $6 per month, gives investors access to extended trading hours and margin trading.
FUNDING: $539 million; latest valuation of $5.6 billion
BONA FIDES: 6 million-plus customers
COFOUNDERS & CO-CEOS: baiju bhatt, 34; vlad Tenev, 32
Roofstock OAKLAND
Platform provides investor tools for evaluating, buying and selling single-family rental homes in 41 markets. Guarantees up to 12 months of rent on a vacant property purchased through the platform.
FUNDING: $75 million; latest valuation of $292 million1
BONA FIDES: more than $1 billion in transactions completed on platform
COFOUNDERS: Ceo Gary beasley, 53 (above); chairman Gregor watson, 38; rich ford, 49
Root Insurance COLUMBUS, OH
Sells app-centric car insurance in 22 states with pricing heavily based on how an individual drives during test period, monitored by app.
FUNDING: $171 million; latest valuation of $1 billion
Bona FIDES: Claims average driver saves $1,187 per year
COFOUNDERS: Ceo alex Timm, 30; CTO dan manges, 33
Stash NEW YORK CITY
A mobile investing app that offers commission-free and fractional purchases of stocks and ETFs, themed investment portfolios and IRAs. Users with less than $5,000 pay $1 a month; others pay 0.25% of assets a year.
FUNDING: $117 million; recent valuation of $350 million1
BONA FIDES 3 million customers
COFOUNDERS: Ceo brandon Krieg, 44; president ed robinson, 35
Stripe SAN FRANCISCO
Originally a service to help small online sellers process payments, now serves Microsoft and Amazon, too. Adding new products, including credit card issuing technology and point-of-sale software.
FUNDING: $685 million; latest valuation of $20 billion
BONA FIDES: most highly valued private fintech company in the U.S.
COFOUNDERS: Ceo patrick Collison, 30 (above); president John Collison, 28, irish-born brothers
Symphony PALO ALTO, CA
An encrypted platform that allows competing firms to communicate without compromising their data or breaching compliance rules. Customers have developed more than 500 automation bots using Symphony.
FUNDING: more than $300 million; latest valuation of $1 billion-plus
BONA FIDES: used by 390 firms with more than 400,000 users
FOUNDER & CEO: david Gurlé, 52, a veteran of Thomson reuters, skype and microsoft
Tala SANTA MONICA, CA
Makes microloans of $10 to $500 to borrowers in developing countries by crunching data from their smartphones (including merchant transactions, app usage, texts and calls) to judge if they’re creditworthy. More than 85% of approved customers receive credit in less than 10 minutes.
FUNDING: $105 million, plus recent paypal investment (undisclosed size)
BONA FIDES has originated $680 million in loans to 2.5 million-plus customers, with 90% repayment rate
FOUNDER & CEO: shivani siroya, 36, former Citigroup and ubs analyst
Toast BOSTON
Started in 2011 by three MIT grads, it makes point-of-sale devices for restaurants and can handle such tasks as managing food inventory.
FUNDING: $248 million; latest valuation of $1.4 billion
BONA FIDES: Tens of thousands of customers, including Jamba Juice
COFOUNDERS: Co-presidents aman narang, 36, and steve fredette, 35; CTO Jonathan Grimm, 33
Tradeshift SAN FRANCISCO
Processes payments for supplychain transactions, handling everything from “know your customer” regulatory checks to advice on how quickly to pay a supplier.
FUNDING: $400 million; latest valuation of $1.2 billion
BONA FIDES: processes $500 billion in payments a year for 500 customers
COFOUNDERS: Ceo Christian lanng, 40; svp mikkel brun, 50; svp Gert sylvest, 47
TransferWise LONDON
Makes money transfers cheaper by matching unrelated customers’ orders, so less currency crosses borders. Fees average 0.5%, compared with roughly 5% for banks.
FUNDING: $397 million; latest valuation of $1.6 billion
BONA FIDES: $4 billion processed monthly for 4 million-plus customers
COFOUNDERS: Ceo Kristo Käärmann, 38; chairman Taavet hinrikus, 36