At FintechLIVE we maintain a list of 21st-century fintech unicorns* updated monthly (full list here). In January, we added 9 new unicorns for a month-end total of 134. The total value is now $1.42 trillion up from $1.25 trillion last month.

Unicorn count:

Beginning (Jan 1) = 125
+ 7 born this month (Digit Insurance, Divvy, Mambu, Melio Payments, MX, PPro, Sunlight Financial)
+ 2 returned after dropping off last year (GreenSky, Sezzle)
___________________
Total (Jan 31) = 134

Total valuation = $1.42 trillion

New in January:

Newborns:

  • Digit Insurance: The Indian insurance startup, now valued at $1.9B, was founded in 2016 and has raised $250M. It is the 7th fintech unicorn based in India, and the 4th most valuable.
  • Divvy: Two Utah companies became unicorns this month. The first, Divvy, is a corporate credit card and expense management firm in the same category with Brex, Expensify, and others.  Founded in 2016, Divvy landed on the unicorn list at a $1.6B valuation, tied for 83rd most valuable this century.
  • Mambu: Valued at $2B, the 10-year-old German banking-as-a-service company powers 3-million active accounts. Mambu is the highest valued new unicorn this month, tied for the 66th most valuable overall and 2nd highest out of Germany, trailing only N26.
  • Melio Payments: The NYC-based B2B payments startup took just 2.5 years to grow from zero to $1.3B in value. It’s currently tied for 96th most valuable across all fintech, and 36th most valuable payments company.
  • MX: The second Utah unicorn of January, MX needs no introduction if you’ve ever attended or followed Finovate. Not only did it win the most Best of Show awards, its scores were usually well ahead of the runner-ups. It was a case of great personal finance software meets superb storytelling by founder Ryan Caldwell along with demo god Matt West. We suspect MX has been worth north of $1B for a year or two, but it wasn’t until the Jan 2021 round at a $1.9B value that its unicorn status was officially confirmed.
  • PPRO: Founded in 2006, the London-based payments company is the oldest of the new unicorns. PPRO helps global merchants accept payments locally to save on FX costs.

Sunlight Financial: We debated whether NYC-based Sunlight is more fintech or financial institution. But given it’s position as powering alternative energy lending at the POS, it seemed to be more the former. The startups is expecting to go public in early 2021 via a SPAC with an estimated market cap of $1.3B.


Full Fintech Unicorn List
(values as of 2 Feb 2021)

Rank Company $B Value Value Date Founded Country
1 PayPal 293 2-feb-2021 1998 United States
2 Ant Technology 150 2018 round 2014 China
3 Shopify 150 2-feb-2021 2004 Canada
4 Square 102 2-feb-2021 2009 United States
5 Adyen 65.2 2-feb-2021 2006 Netherlands
6 Afterpay 42.0 2-feb-2021 2014 Australia
7 Lufax 40.1 2-feb-2021 2011 China
8 Stripe 35.0 April 2020 round 2010 United States
9 Affirm 27.5 2-feb-2021 2012 United States
10 Nubank 25.0 Jan 2021 round 2013 Brazil
11 Stone 24.1 2-feb-2021 2013 Brazil
12 Lakala 23.9 2-feb-2021 2004 China
13 WeBank 21.2 Nov 2018 transaction 2014 China
14 Xero 18.6 2-feb-2021 2006 New Zealand
15 One97 (PayTM) 16.0 Nov 2019 round 2010 India
16 Checkout.com 15.0 Jan 2021 round 2012 United Kingdom
17 Plaid Technologies 15.0 Rumored 2021 round 2012 United States
18 Chime 14.5 Sep 2020 round 2013 United States
19 Robinhood 11.7 Sep 2020 round 2013 United States
20 Bill.com 11.1 2-feb-2021 2006 United States
21 Klarna 10.6 Sep 2020 round 2005 Sweden
22 Ripple 10.0 Dec 2019 round 2012 United States
23 Nuvei 9.4 2-feb-2021 2003 Canada
24 SoFi 8.7 Jan 2021 SPAC announcement 2011 United States
25 Lemonade 8.2 2-feb-2021 2015 United States
26 OneConnect (PingAn) 8.1 2-feb-2021 2015 China
27 Coinbase 8.0 Oct 2018 round 2012 United States
28 Jiedaibao 7.8 Jan 2016 round 2014 China
29 Q2 Holdings 7.4 2-feb-2021 2004 United States
30 Credit Karma 7.1 Exit 2007 United States
31 nCino 6.7 2-feb-2021 2012 United States
32 HealthEquity 6.3 2-feb-2021 2002 United States
33 Greensill 6.0 Nov 2019 round 2011 United Kingdom
34 Trustly 5.9 Estimate based on 2021 IPO value 2008 Sweden
35 Root Insurance 5.8 Oct 2020 IPO 2016 United States
36 Duck Creek Software 6.7 2-feb-2021 2000 United States
37 PhonePe 5.5 Dec 2020 spinout 2015 India
38 Revolut 5.5 Feb 2020 round 2015 United Kingdom
39 Virtu Financial 5.5 2-feb-2021 2008 United States
40 TransferWise 5.0 June 2020 secondary 2011 United Kingdom
41 Toast 4.9 Feb 2020 round 2011 United States
42 Marqeta 4.3 May 2020 round 2010 United States
43 Better.com 4.0 Sep 2020 round (unconfirmed) 2016 United States
44 Gusto 3.8 July 2019 round 2011 United States
45 Tinkoff Bank 3.8 2-feb-2021 2006 Russia
46 Cardlytics 3.7 2-feb-2021 2008 United States
47 Assurance 3.5 Exit 2016 United States
48 N26 3.5 May 2020 round 2013 Germany
49 Blend 3.3 Jan 2021 round 2012 United States
50 Oscar Health 3.2 Mar 2018 round 2012 United States
51 China UnionPay 3.0 Per Crunchbase 12/19 2002 China
52 Circle Internet Financial 3.0 May 2018 round 2013 United States
53 Devoted Health 3.0 May 2020 fundraising 2017 United States
54 Flywire 3.0 Feb 2020 round 2011 United States
55 GreenDot 2.9 2-feb-2021 1999 United States
56 OVO 2.9 Mar 2019 round 2017 Indonesia
57 OakNorth 2.8 May 2019 round 2015 United Kingdom
58 Verafin 2.8 Exit Nov 2020 2003 Canada
59 Brex 2.6 June 2020 round 2017 United States
60 Toss 2.6 Aug 2020 round 2011 South Korea
61 eToro 2.5 Dec 2020 secondary 2007 United Kingdom
62 PineLabs 2.5 Dec 2020 round 1998 India
63 Rapyd 2.5 Jan 2020 round 2016 United Kingdom
64 Lifelock 2.3 Exit 2005 United States
65 iZettle 2.2 Exit 2010 Sweden
66 Avant 2.0 Sep 2015 round 2012 United States
67 AvidXchange 2.0 Jan 2020 round 2000 United States
68 FirstP2P 2.0 Per Crunchbase 12/19 2013 China
69 Tipalti 2.0 Oct 2020 round 2010 United States
70 Waterdrop 2.0 Aug 2020 round 2016 China
71 Zenefits 2.0 May 2015 round 2013 United States
72 Mambu 2.0 Jan 2021 round 2011 Germany
73 MX 1.9 Jan 2021 round 2010 United States
74 Digit Insurance 1.9 Jan 2021 round 2016 India
75 Airwallex 1.8 Apr 2020 round 2015 Australia
76 BillDesk 1.8 Nov 2018 round 2000 India
77 Creditas 1.8 Dec 2020 round 2012 Brazil
78 Carta 1.7 May 2019 round 2012 United States
79 Wefox 1.7 Dec 2019 round 2015 Germany
80 Zuora 1.7 2-feb-2021 2007 United States
81 Sezzle 1.7 2-feb-2021 2016 United States
82 Mercury 1.7 Exit 2001 United States
83 Monzo 1.6 May 2020 round 2015 United Kingdom
84 Judo Bank 1.6 Dec 2020 round 2016 Australia
85 Divvy 1.6 Jan 2021 round 2016 United States
86 Fawry 1.5 31-Dec-2020 2008 Egypt
87 GoHealth 1.5 Exit 2001 United States
88 Hippo 1.5 July 2020 round 2015 United States
89 PingPong 1.5 Mar 2019 round 2015 China
90 PolicyBazaar 1.5 May 2019 round 2008 India
91 Remitly 1.5 July 2020 round 2011 United States
92 WorldRemit 1.5 Bloomberg article about acquistion of SendWave 2010 United Kingdom
93 CGTZ 1.4 June 2018 round 2013 China
94 BillTrust 1.3 SPAC estimated early 2021 2001 United States
95 Metromile 1.3 Nov 2020 SPAC (proposed) 2011 United States
96 Melio Payments 1.3 Jan 2021 round 2018 United States
97 Sunlight Financial 1.3 SPAC estimated early 2021 2014 United States
98 Atom Bank 1.3 July 2019 round 2014 United Kingdom
99 Clover Health 1.2 Jan 2019 round 2013 United States
100 dLocal 1.2 Sep 2020 round 2016 Uruguay
101 Figure 1.2 Dec 2019 round 2018 United States
102 Galileo 1.2 Exit 2000 United States
103 Greenlight 1.2 Sep 2020 round 2014 United States
104 Deposit Solutions 1.1 Sep 2019 round 2011 Germany
105 Cayan 1.1 Exit 1998 United States
106 Tradeshift 1.1 May 2018 round 2009 United States
107 C2FO 1.0 Apr 2019 round 2008 United States
108 ChromeRiver 1.0 Exit 2007 United States
109 Dave 1.0 June 2019 round 2016 United States
110 EBANX 1.0 Oct 2019 round 2012 Brazil
111 Expensify 1.0 Estimate based on $100M ARR 2008 United States
112 Fast 1.0 Oct 2020 rumors 2019 United States
113 HighRadius 1.0 Jan 2020 round 2006 United States
114 Interswitch 1.0 Nov 2019 round 2002 Nigeria
115 LendingHome 1.0 Mar 2018 round 2014 United States
116 Liquid 1.0 Apr 2019 round 2013 Japan
117 Mollie 1.0 Sep 2020 round 2004 Netherlands
118 MoneyLion 1.0 July 2019 round 2013 United States
119 Neon Pagamentos 1.0 Estimate 2016 Brazil
120 Next Insurance 1.0 Oct 2019 round 2016 United States
121 Numbrs 1.0 Aug 2019 round 1999 Switzerland
122 Payoneer 1.0 Dec 2017 round 2005 United States
123 Personal Capital 1.0 Exit 2009 United States
124 RazorPay 1.0 Oct 2020 round 2014 India
125 Riskified 1.0 Nov 2019 round 2012 United States
126 Upgrade 1.0 June 2020 round 2016 United States
127 Varo Money 1.0 Estimate 2015 United States
128 WealthSimple 1.0 Oct 2020 round 2014 Canada
129 WeLab 1.0 Dec 2019 round 2013 HongKong
130 GoCardless 1.0 Dec 2020 round 2011 United Kingdom
131 PPRO 1.0 Jan 2021 round 2006 United Kingdom
132 GreenSky 1.0 2-feb-2021 2006 United States
133 Finicity 1.0 Exit 1999 United States
134 Bright Health 1.0 Nov 2019 round 2015 United States

Source: FintechLabs.com 2 Feb 2021


*To qualify, a company must have been founded in 2000 or later*** and have its primary business related to financial services including banking, savings, lending, investing, insurance, wealth management, SMB accounting and payroll. We do not include health insurance companies. Services can be sold directly to consumers or through financial institutions or other companies. Full list here.
** If you know any missing unicorns, please email jim@fintechlabs.com
***There are two exceptions started in the 1998/1999 timeframe, PayPal and Finicity.