With the US and UK retaining the top two positions globally, India has ranked third among the countries with the most financial technology (fintech) unicorns in the world in 2023. India secured the third position with 17 fintech unicorns in 2023 so far while the US is home to 134 unicorns and produces the most value in terms of fintech, and the UK took second place with 27 fintech unicorns.
According to global research firm Statista “US is also home to the largest fintech companies worldwide by market capitalization, with fintech majors Visa, Paypal, and Mastercard dominating the global ecosystem. Out of the top 15 highest-valued fintech firms globally, eight are from the US.”
The combined valuation of these eight unicorns including Visa ($465.13 billion) and MasterCard ($344.57 billion) comes in at $1.2 trillion. Despite being home to only eight unicorns, China came second. Taking the country's overall financial market cap to $338.92 billion, the giants that have marked its name are Tencent ($187.92 billion) and Ant Financial ($151 billion).
Some of the world’s largest technology companies, such as Meta, Apple, Google, and Amazon, and a well-established venture capital system with players such as Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz belong to Silicon Valley which has been a home for the sector.
Some of India's top profitable companies include stock brokerage platform Zerodha, fintech firm Billdesk, UPI giant Paytm, etc. And to speak of FinTech giants who have been outshining others FinTech giants like Zerodha, Razorpay, Pine Labs, Paytm, Billdesk, among few others have been profitable.
Marking a growth of 32 percent as compared to ₹1,914 crore reported in the year-ago period, Paytm recorded a consolidated revenue from operations of ₹2,519 crore in the second quarter of fiscal year 2023-24 (Q2FY24).
As against a loss of ₹572 crore reported in the corresponding period of FY23, the fintech major posted a consolidated net loss of ₹292 crore during the quarter under review, which is 49 percent lower.
According to Statista, if we look at the UK’s market, some of the biggest unicorns that have made its presence felt include online banking startup Revolut ($33 billion), crypto wallet provider Blockchain.com ($14 billion), digital payments groups Checkout.com ($11 billion), Rapyd ($8.75 billion) and SumUp ($8.5 billion),
In the UK, startups such as Monzo and Starling made a mark in the banking world with their digital-only offerings, while in China, Alibaba and Tencent launched their own respective mobile wallets, Alipay and WeChat Pay.
