This year’s report shows a significant surge in venture capital backing.

Chinese and Asia-Pacific companies made a strong showing in top 10 of the 2019 Fintech100 report from KPMG International's global Fintech practice and fintech investment firm H2 Ventures.

As in 2018, this year’s list showed payments and transaction companies dominating, representing 26 of the ranked companies. This was followed by wealth companies (20), insurance companies (17) and lending companies (15).

China, which led the Fintech100 for the past three years, had three companies in the top 10 this year. Overall, the Asia-Pacific region dominated the top 10 for another year with five companies in the ranking. Ant Financial (China) ranked first for the second year running, followed by Grab (Singapore) and JD Digits (China). Coming in fourth was Indonesia-based GoJek. China-based Xiaoman Financial took sixth.

Two India-based companies also featured in the top 10, as did two companies from the US and one from the UK (see the complete top 10 ranking below).

Ian Pollari, Global Co-leader for KPMG’s Fintech practice and a partner with KPMG Australia said: “Globally, we have seen a rise in companies from across Asia-Pacific (including China) which represent the top six, and seven of the top 10 fintech companies in 2019, with China again securing the most top-ten positions.

“In 2019, we have also seen the emergence of India as a fintech force, taking two of the top positions and with seven companies in this year’s list in total,” he added.

Toby Heap, Founding Partner, H2 Ventures, noted: “This year’s Fintech100 reveals a significant increase in venture capital backing of fintech companies. The companies on the 2019 list have raised over USD $71 billion in venture capital (up 36 percent from last year’s figure) and over USD $18 billion of capital in the past 12 months.”

“We have also seen a drop in the number of payments and lending companies making the Fintech100,” Heap added. “They have been replaced by a surge in the number of wealth, insurance and multi-sector companies.”

1. Ant Financial (China) is the world's largest third-party payments platform.
2. Grab (Singapore) uses data and technology to improve everything from transportation to payments across a region of more than 620 million people.
3. JD Digits (China) is a digital technology company, dedicated to providing digital, online and offline all-scenario services around three key points: data, user and connectivity. It uses emerging technologies such as big data, AI, cloud computing, blockchain and IoT.
4. GoJek (Indonesia) a multi-services platform with more than 20 services including Gopay, Gobills, Gopoints, Paylater, and Gopulsa serving millions of users in Southeast Asia. 
   
5. Paytm (India) is the largest digital payments company in India with more than 380 million registered users and 12 million merchants on-board its Paytm platform. 
6. Du Xiaoman Financial (China) provides short-term loan and investment services.
7. Compass (United States) is a real estate technology company with a powerful end-to-end platform that supports the entire buying and selling workflow. 
8. Ola (India) off the back of its ridesharing user base Ola Money is making payments easier and simpler. 
9. Opendoor (United States) makes it possible to receive an offer on a home in just a few clicks, and sell in a matter of days, removing the headaches, uncertainties, and risks from the transaction.
10. OakNorth (United Kingdom) specializes in small-and-medium-enterprise lending using its proprietary data and technology platform.

Many fintechs are also benefiting from being at the forefront of several key trends, the report found.

Globalization
According to market analysis, an increasing number of fintechs are rapidly globalizing across multiple jurisdictions, such as Australia's AfterPay Touch, Brazil-based Nubank, Germany-based Kreditech Holdings, and Spain's Bnext. 

Monoline to mainstream
Early fintech innovators with monoline product propositions are now diversifying to fulfil a greater set of mainstream customer needs.

Open banking
A number of companies, such as China's Ant Financial and India's Open, are benefiting from the global policy shift to open banking, which is driving competition and allowing fintechs to access customer banking data to create faster, more personalized and innovative services.

The Fintech100 were selected following extensive global research and analysis based on data relating to five factors. These selection criteria are the key metrics used to calculate the rankings of companies in the Fintech100 list because of the emphasis that venture capitalists place on the ability of companies to generate a long-term, sustainable competitive advantage.

1. Total capital raised
2. Rate of capital raising
3. Geographic diversity
4. Sectorial diversity
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).
   

About KPMG's Global Fintech Practice

The Financial Services industry is transforming with the emergence of innovative new products, channels and business models. This wave of change is driven by evolving customer expectations, digitalisation, as well as continued regulatory and cost pressures. We are passionate about supporting clients to successfully navigate this transformation, mitigating the threats and capitalising on the opportunities. KPMG Global Fintech comprises professionals in over 50 fintech hubs around the world, working closely with financial institutions and fintech companies, to help them understand the signals of change, identify the growth opportunities and to develop and execute on their strategic plans.

About KPMG International

KPMG is a global network of professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. We operate in 153 countries and territories and have 207,000 people working in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such.

About H2 Ventures

H2 Ventures is a leading early stage venture capital firm based in Sydney, Australia. They run the H2 Accelerator, a twenty week, in-house program focused on fintech, data & artificial intelligence. Founded by brothers Ben and Toby Heap, H2 is reinventing financial services, data and artificial intelligence by bringing together talented entrepreneurs, investors, forward-thinking established organizations and other thought leaders in the world of technology enabled disruption.