The foreign exchange market has been one of the most restricted ones for several decades. Due to the many changes in the exchange rates and additional fees, many users could not comprehend the process of making payments. To make it simple for users, many fintech startups have started coming up with their own solutions to make changes to the overseas payments.
As the money transfer industry has witnessed several noticeable changes. While there are many attractive fintech startups that have ventured into the payments industry. These companies have disrupted the peer-to-peer money transfer sector and have attracted millions of users.
Having said that, here are the rising stars of fintech startups in the payments industry as stated by a Dealroom report titled ‘The State of European Fintech’. Notably, this industry is dominated by big names such as Adyen, Klarna, and others.
SumUp (London)
Founders: Daniel Klein, Jan Deepen, Marc-Alexander Christ, Petter Made, Stefan Jeschonnek
Funding: €39.1 million
Founded year: 2011
Why its hot: SumUp is a leading fintech startup that is gearing up to become the first-ever global card acceptance brand. The startup lets businesses accept card payments in-app, in-store, and online in a secure, simple, and cost-efficient way. SumUp is the only company to provide end-to-end EMV card acceptance solutions based on its proprietary hardware as well as mobile apps. Based in London, SumUp has expanded into 31 new markets including Brazil, Germany, and the U.S.
Checkout.com (London)
Founders: Guillaume Pousaz
Funding: €209 million
Founded year: 2012
Why its hot: Checkout.com is an online payment solution service provider, which is built on its proprietary technology. This fintech company handles all the aspects of payment processes and assures complete transparency throughout these processes. This London-based company works with global tech giants including Samsung, Getty Images, Transferwise, Deliveroo, and more.
iZettle (Stockholm)
Founders: Jacob De Geer, Magnus Nilsson
Funding: €204 million
Founded year: 2010
Why its hot: iZettle is a mobile payments company offering small businesses portable point-of-sale solutions and free sales overview tools. The company is now a part of PayPal and has revolutionised the mobile payments industry with its world’s first mini chip card reader and software for mobile devices. Now, the commerce platform for small businesses is available in Europe and Latin America and provides clients with tools to sell smarter, get paid, and grow their businesses.
Skrill (London)
Founders: Damon Petta
Funding: €1.1 billion
Founded year: 2001
Why its hot: Skrill has been providing digital payments solutions for customers and businesses across the world. With this startup, several millions of account holders bring their payment options together and manage the same in a single place conveniently. The company was acquired by paysafecard.com with the intention to become one of the largest digital wallet service providers in the world.
Bambora (Stockholm)
Founders: Johan Tjärnberg
Funding: €1.5 billion
Founded year: 2015
Why its hot: Bambora operates with the mission to simplify payments for small and medium-sized businesses. The fintech startup changes the way the payment industry functions with its transparent pricing and all-in-one packaged solutions. Bambora creates a payment service, which is easy to understand for all businesses. It constantly focuses on customers, which is one of the key factors for its growth.
WorldPay (Cambridge)
Founders: Nick Ogden
Funding: €27.6 million
Founded year: 1993
Why its hot: WorldPay has been rebranded FIS. The company is the heart of financial and commerce transactions to power the world’s economy. The company is passionate about helping communities and businesses thrive by advancing the way the world pays, invests, and banks. As of now, FIS serves over 20,000 clients and has over one million merchants located across 130 countries.
Wirecard (Munich)
CEO: Markus Braun
Founded year: 1999
Why its hot: Wirecard is a global leader, which brings innovations in digital financial technology. The company employs over 5000 employees across 26 countries. It is one of the fastest-growing digital platforms in the fintech commerce industry and provides end customers and businesses with a constantly expanding ecosystem of real-time value-added services. Wirecard focuses on retail, transaction banking, payment and risk among others.
Trustly (Stockholm)
Founders: Carl Wilsson, Joel Jacobsson, Lukas Gratte
Funding: €23 million
Founded year: 2008
Why its hot: Trustly envisions a world in which online payments are simple, secure, and fast for everyone including merchants, banks, and end consumers. The Swedish payment institution conducts payment services that adhere to the Payment Services Act and provides cross-border payment services within EU. Last year, Trustly was acquired by Nordic Capital and it became the largest stakeholder in the fintech firm.
Soldo (London)
Founders: Carlo Gualandri
Funding: €68.7 million
Founded year: 2014
Why its hot: Soldo is a London-based fintech startup, which provides businesses with a multi-user spending account. The company creates the next-generation of expense and payment management solutions for businesses of all sizes. Soldo is an integrated and effective solutions that let companies continue using their existing bank accounts and provides a dedicated spending account that preemptively controls and streamlines the spend management cycle.
Curve (London)
Founders: Shachar Bialick
Funding: €63.2 million
Founded year: 2015
Why its hot: Curve has developed an OTP banking platform, which provides a better banking experience by combining all the accounts and cards of users into a smart platform with a smart Curve Mastercard. It completely replaces your wallet and offers its customers to become part of the ownership structure with its Crowdcube campaign.
Main image picture credits: Checkout
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