Wealthsimple, League make global fintech list

Canadian robo-advisor Wealthsimple and online employee benefits company League cracked KPMG’s ranking of the top fintech innovators for 2018.

Wealthsimple ranked 25th on the 2018 Fintech100, assembled by KPMG Fintech and Australian investment firm H2 Ventures, while League placed 39th.

The fifth annual report ranks the world’s leading 50 fintech companies based on innovation, capital raising, size and reach. It also lists 50 emerging fintechs.

Chinese companies dominated the top five. Ant Financial topped the list, followed by JD Finance in second place and Baidu in fourth.

Singapore-based Grab ranked third and American social finance company SoFi rounded out the top five.

The U.S. had the most firms on the list, with 18, followed by a dozen from the U.K. and 11 from China.

In addition to Wealthsimple and League, a couple of other top firms have Canadian connections. Online lender Kabbage (ranked 30th) recently announced a partnership with Scotiabank that will allow clients in both Canada and Mexico to apply for small business loans of up to $100,000. And AI assistant Cleo (on the emerging list) has Canadian users.

Payments companies accounted for 34 of the 100 companies, followed by 22 in lending, 14 in wealth management and 12 in insurance. Fintechs offering a broad range of financial services to customers, or “multis,” such as Ant Financial, placed highly.

The top 10 companies in 2018 Fintech100

1. Ant Financial (China) 2. JD Finance (China) 3. Grab (Singapore) 4. Baidu (Du Xiaoman Financial) (China) 5. Sofi (U.S.) 6. Oscar Health (U.S.) 7. Nubank (Brazil) 8. Robinhood (U.S.) 9. Atom Bank (U.K.) 10. Lufax (China)

Read the report here.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.