We can’t get enough of startup pitches, and wow, did Y Combinator just deliver with 191 startup debuts in 2 days of virtual demos. 27 of the total were fintech companies, a fairly typical 14% of the YC batch. Though back when YC was just starting, only a handful were fintech. In the first 9 years of YC (2005 thru 2013), only 24 YC companies were in the fintech space though two of those early participants are now decacorns ($10B+). See table below for YC fintech startups by year.
- Stripe (YC 2009) is the most valuable private fintech company outside of China (see full fintech unicorn list), valued at $36B in its April 2020 round
- Coinbase (YC 2012) is the 9th most valuable fintech (outside of China), valued at $8B in its last round (Oct 2018), but most likely above $10B now
Table: Number of YC-backed startups in the fintech sector
| Year | Fintech Startups |
| 2005 | 1 |
| 2006 | 0 |
| 2007 | 1 |
| 2008 | 1 |
| 2009 | 2 |
| 2010 | 2 |
| 2011 | 6 |
| 2012 | 5 |
| 2013 | 6 |
| 2014 | 13 |
| 2015 | 19 |
| 2016 | 17 |
| 2017 | 27 |
| 2018 | 23 |
| 2019 | 40 |
| 2020 | 50 |
Summer 2020 YC Fintech Startups
Afriex: [Payments, Cryptocurrency, Remittances]
Product: Uses USD-pegged stablecoins to send money to other countries.
Traction: Currently processing $500,000 per month, up 5x in the last three months
Atomic: [Investing, API]
Product: Fintech API that allows other platforms to integrate investment accounts into their products,
Traction: A few companies amounting to $300M in AUM, with $1.5M in ARR
Bits: [Cards, Credit scores, Consumer]
Product: Helps build credit scores with a digital credit card that must be paid off every month.
Traction: 10,000 paying customers in first 9 months; $1.9M in revenue.
Blue Onion Labs: [Accounting, SMBs, Financial management]
Product: Helps companies make sense of financial transaction data across multiple systems with a suite of API integrations
Traction: Unknown
BukuWarung: [Payments, Card processing, SMBs]
Product: Merchant app for small stores in Indonesia.
Traction: 350,000 monthly active merchants
CapWay: [Banking, Financial inclusion, Consumer]
Product: Mobile bank for the underbanked.
Traction: Launching Sep 2020
Charityvest: [Employee benefits, Philanthropy]
Product: Allows companies to offer donor-advised funds as an employee benefit.
Traction: $65,000 in annual recurring revenue (ARR) run rate
Conta Simples: [Payments, SMBs]
Product: Digital corporate charge card for Brazillian startups
Traction: $50,000 in revenue in July (2020).
Cradle: [Payments, SMBs]
Product: Free B2B payments for companies in India
Traction: Unknown
Dapi: [Payments, Banking]
Product: APIs for payments between consumer bank accounts and companies.
Traction: Works in seven countries; run rate of $400,000 in annual recurring revenue (ARR) growing 50% month over month.
Decentro: [APIs, Banking]
Product: Plaid for India with an API for banking integrations
Traction: Four customers, with 45 in the pipeline; $1 million in gross transaction volume (GTV) and $84,000 ARR run rate
Finch: [Lending, Employee benefits, APIs]
Product: API for developers to tap into payroll systems to verify income, set up direct deposits, pull paystubs, and confirm employment.
Traction: Unknown
Finmark: [SMBs, Accounting]
Product: Financial planning software for startups to manage runway and cash.
Traction: 300 company signups
Henry: [Student lending; ISAs, Consumer]
Product: Income sharing agreements (ISA) for Latin America to pay educational expenses.
Traction: 500 students
Heron Data: [Back office]
Product: B2B service that categorizes and labels bank transaction data
Traction: Unknown
LendTable: [Lending, Employee benefits, Investing, Enterprise]
Product: Loans employees money to pay for financial benefits such as 401k’s and stock options with repayment based on sharing of the eventual profits.
Traction: Unknown
Letter: [Banking, Wealth management, Consumer]
Product: Digital bank for high net worth consumers ($1M to $10M in assets)
Traction: Unknown
Maytana: [Payments, SMBs, APIs]
Product: Payment center for multinational startups using open banking APIs.
Traction: Three customers paying a 0.01% fee for money transfers.
Mozper: [Paymets, Cards, Youth, Banking, Consumer]
Product: Debit card and app for Latin American kids (and their parents).
Traction: $1.5 million in pre-seed funding
Notabene: [Payments, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, RegTech, SMBs]
Product: Helps businesses transact in cyrpto in a regulatory compliant way.
Traction: 10 signed customers in last month
Safepay: [Payments, SMBs, APIs]
Product: Stripe for Pakistan with a digital payments API
Traction: Unknown
Perch: [Consumer, Credit scores, Underwriting]
Product: Credit Karma for the underbanked helping customers improve credit scores by turning rent and other recurring payments into credit-building items.
Traction: 22,000 person waitlist
Plunzo: [Account aggregation, SMBs]
Product: Account aggregation for Latin American small businesses (SMBs)
Traction: Working with over 3,000 retail accounts
Spenmo: [SMBs, Payments]
Product: Bill.com for SMBs in Southeast Asia by helping companies manage payments. Traction: In 5 months it has 150 customers transacting $500,000 through the platform in July.
Thndr: [Consumer, Investing]
Product: Robinhood for the Middle East with free stock, bond and fund trading.
Traction: Unknown
VoloPay: [SMBs, Payments, Cards]
Product: Brex for Southeast Asia with corporate credit card and integrated accounting.
Traction: $90,000 in transactions in past 3 months.
Yottasavings: [Consumer, Deposits/Savings, Banking]
Product: Savings accounts that provide the chance of winning a prize.
Traction: $30 million in deposits since its July launch.
Update (28 Aug 2020): Check out Simon Taylor (from 11:FS) take on the fintech companies in this batch.
