10 most valuable private fintechs in the U.S.:
Stripe: $50 billion
Last raise: March 2023
13-year-old Stripe processes payments for online businesses. It rode the pandemic’s ecommerce boom to a $95 billion valuation in March 2021, though its valuation dropped to $50 billion in March 2023. In 2022, the company processed $817 billion worth of transactions for customers including OpenAI, Microsoft and Ford.
Cofounders: Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, 34 and 32, respectively, sold their first startup, an auction-management system for ecommerce sellers called Auctomatic, for $5 million in 2008 before starting Stripe in 2010.
Chime: $25 billion
Last raise: August 2021
Chime rose to prominence by offering free checking accounts with no overdraft fees and cash advances to customers. Today, Chime is the largest digital bank in the United States. In 2021, the digital bank was reportedly planning an initial public offering, but those plans have been delayed. In 2022, it had 13.8 million app downloads compared with 13.2 million in 2021, according to Apptopia. It has raised a total of $2.3 billion from investors including Sequoia Capital and Menlo Ventures.
Cofounders: CEO Chris Britt, 50, who did previous stints at Green Dot and Visa; CTO Ryan King, 46.
Ripple: $15 billion
Last publicly valued raise: January 2022, in a private stock buyback.
California-based Ripple aims to arm enterprise clients with tools to integrate cryptocurrencies with their existing operations. It promises to enable cross-border payments, facilitate instant payments and help manage crypto holdings. Its liquidity hub platform is designed to connect businesses with market makers, exchanges and over-the-counter desks in cryptocurrency markets. The Securities and Exchange Commission is suing Ripple alleging that the sale of its native token, XRP, constitutes an unregistered securities offering. (Note: According to Pitchbook, Ripple raised funds in January 2023, but the valuation hasn’t been publicly disclosed.)
Cofounders: Executive chairman Chris Larsen, 63; Jed McCaleb, 50; Arthur Britto, CEO: Brad Garlinghouse, 50, a former AOL president.
Blockchain.com: $14 billion
Last raise: March 2022
U.K.-based Blockchain.com is a cryptocurrency exchange, data hub and provider of one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency wallets allowing users to self-custody their crypto holdings by providing tools to manage their private keys. In March, the company evolved its wallet into the Blockchain.com app, which allows users to access their custodial exchange accounts and their non-custodial crypto wallets from the same place. Blockchain.com’s wallet is available in 25 languages and supports customers in more than 200 countries.
Cofounders: CEO Peter Smith, 33, an early bitcoin enthusiast; and Vice-Chairman Nicolas Cary.
Plaid: $13.4 billion
Last raise: April 2021
Plaid facilitates the sharing of consumers’ financial data between their bank accounts and financial service apps. Its network includes 12,000 banks, credit unions and financial institutions and counts fintechs including Venmo and Robinhood among its client base. In 2022, it launched a slate of new fraud-fighting features and Instant Payouts on Transfer, a service allowing businesses to disburse loan payments, insurance payouts and wages instantly. It has raised a total of $735 million from Altimeter Capital, Silverlake and Index Ventures.
Cofounders: CEO Zach Perret, 35, and former CTO William Hockey, 33, the cofounder of Fintech 50 member Column.
OpenSea: $13.3 billion
Last raise: December 2021
OpenSea is a peer-to-peer marketplace for NFTs, unique digital collectables which can represent real-world or online items. OpenSea allows customers to mint, buy and sell NFTs across multiple blockchains. In January 2022, OpenSea’s $13.3 billion valuation earned its founders, Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah, the title of first NFT billionaires. In 2022, OpenSea brought in $472 million in revenue by collecting a 2.5% transaction fee on the $18.8 billion in trading volume the platform saw over the year. Despite its success to-date, OpenSea will need to compete with rising challengers like Blur, which usurped OpenSea as the largest marketplace by trading volume for NFTs.
Cofounders: CEO Devin Finzer, 32, and CTO Alex Atallah, 31.
Brex: $12.3 billion
Last raise: January 2022
Business banking startup Brex offers a no-fee corporate charge card with travel rewards and expense tracking, bill pay and startup debt financing. Before the FDIC insured all deposits during the Silicon Valley Bank crisis, Brex helped other startups borrow more than $1 billion to meet potential payroll disruptions. Its cash management account helps clients spread their cash between different bank accounts to insure up to $6 million in deposits. Last summer, Brex announced it was cutting ties with small business clients in favor of larger enterprises and venture-backed startups.
Cofounders: Co-CEOs Henrique Dubugras, 27, and Pedro Franceschi, 26, launched Brex after dropping out of Stanford.
GoodLeap: $12 billion
Last raise: October 2021
GoodLeap is a marketplace for sustainable home upgrades including solar panel systems, energy-efficient windows, smart thermostats or HVAC systems. The company offers point-of-sale financing solutions in an effort to make environmentally-friendly home upgrades more accessible. GoodLeap has provided more than $20 billion in financing to about 700,000 homeowners, up from $13 billion disbursed to 380,000 homeowners one year ago.
Cofounders: Chair and CEO Hayes Barnard, 51, and Chief Revenue Officer Matt Dawson, 49, two longtime executives at SolarCity (now Tesla Energy); and Chief Risk Officer Jason Walker, 49, a veteran mortgage broker.
Bolt: $11 billion
Last raise: January 2022
Six-year-old Bolt offers one-click checkout for online merchants. With the goal of eliminating hassle-prone guest check-outs, Bolt promises to boost purchases and return shoppers for digital retailers. It counts Forever 21, Revolve, Casper and Fanatics among its clients.
Founder: Ryan Breslow, 29, Forbes’ 30 under 30 honoree who stepped down as CEO of Bolt in January 2022. Today, he is CEO and founder of health startup Love.
Alchemy: $10.2 billion
Last raise: February 2022
Alchemy is a platform designed to help developers build decentralized applications. The company connects developers’ applications to existing blockchains to help share data between them. Often referred to as the Amazon Web Services of crypto, Alchemy provides the data infrastructure behind blockchain-based players including NFT marketplace OpenSea, cryptocurrency exchange dydx or decentralized crypto lending platform Aave. It processes more than $150 billion in annualized crypto transactions and has secured $529 million in total funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Coatue, among others.
Cofounders: Nikil Viswanathan, 35 and Joe Lau, 33, two Stanford grads whose first success was meetup app Down to Lunch.
Source: Forbes.com
