Credit and debit card payments are key to the survival of many (most?) small businesses. While banks have long offered competitive services, their relatively rigid underwriting and high fixed monthly costs have turned off many small businesses. So numerous specialists have evolved to better serve the smaller business (SMB). Both PayPal and Square owe their initial success to the small business segment.
We divided the payment providers into four categories:
- Charge card and expense management (see our list here)
- Bill payments and/or invoicing specialists (see our list here)
- Payment processors (see below)
- Subscription management platforms (see list here)
Note: The FAB Score (Fintech Attention Barometer) is a proxy for the size of a private fintech company.
| Learn More | FAB Score* | Founded | Funding $M | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| http://fintechlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/logo-square.jpg | Balance | 26 | Tel Aviv | 2020 | $31 | Apply | ||||
| http://fintechlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Adyen-Logo2.jpg | Adyen | 5,780 | Amsterdam | 2006 | $1366 | 45,100,000 | Apply | |||
| http://fintechlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Adyen-Logo2-1.jpg | 4,624 | SF | 2010 | $2200 | 33,200,000 | Apply | ||||
| http://fintechlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Square-Logo2-1.jpg | 4,496 | SF | 2009 | $866 | Apply | |||||
| http://fintechlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/FastLogo2.jpg | Fast | 157 | SF | 2019 | $125 | 790,000 | Apply | 125 | ||
| http://fintechlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NIUM-Logo2-2.jpg | Nium | 128 | Singapore | 2015 | $280 | 80,000 | Apply | |||
| http://fintechlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Payment-logo-square.jpg | Payment Cloud | 18 | LA | 2016 | 10 | 90,000 | Apply |
Source: FintechLabs, 15 Dec 2021 using data from Crunchbase, SimilarWeb, SEMrush
* We have excluded PayPal from this list because they are more of an enterprise solution, and less importantly were founded in 1998, so a little old/established for a “challenger” list.
**As nerds do, we are developing a proprietary score measuring the adoption of digital financial services at private companies that do not release traditional metrics (# customers, deposits, AUM, etc). We call it the FAB score, standing for Fintech Attention Barometer. The score uses money raised, valuation and website traffic as a proxy for company size and velocity of growth. It’s a work in progress, so expect changes down the road.
**Funding is the amount invested into the company as either equity or debt.
