New Delhi: India ranks third globally in terms of creating unicorn startups in the financial technology sector this year, according to the data compiled by market research firm Statista. The global financial technology market is dominated by the US and British companies as the USA, the world’s largest economy, is home to fintech giants such as Visa, MasterCard and Paypal among others.
However, the United Kingdom, home to one of the top financial capitals in the world London, is not to be left behind in terms of creating fintech unicorns and the country ranks second globally after the USA. In terms of market capitalisation of fintech companies, the world’s second-largest economy China is at the second position behind the USA. China is home to two fintech powerhouses, Alibaba Group, which runs Ant Financial, and Tencent which manages the wallet payment service WeChat Pay while Alibaba manages a wallet payment service known as Ali Pay.
According to the data compiled by Statista, the USA is home to 134 unicorns and produces the most value in terms of fintech, the UK was ranked second with 27 fintech unicorns and India secured the third position as the country is home to 17 fintech unicorns this year, ahead of China, which is home to eight fintech unicorns this year.
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Unicorns are those companies that are backed by venture capital and have achieved a market valuation in excess of $ 1 billion. India’s fintech companies include stock trading platform Zerodha, financial technology company Paytm, Bill Pay, Pine Labs and Razor Pay among others. Though in terms of the market capitalisation of fintech companies, India is at a distant fifth position, but it is included in the leading countries having a fintech ecosystem due to the sheer number of fintech unicorns it has produced over the years.
The country is home to 17 fintech unicorns, while China is at the fourth spot with eight fintech unicorns while France, Brazil and Germany each have six fintech unicorns. These seven countries are followed by Mexico and Singapore with each having five fintech unicorns, followed by the Netherlands, which has four fintech unicorns.
Fintech by market valuation
The data compiled by Statista showed that the US is leading in terms of the market capitalisation of fintech companies. The US fintech giants are dominating the world’s financial ecosystem with companies such as Visa, MasterCard and Paypal leading the pack. The data showed that out of the top 15 most valued fintech firms, more than half of them are US companies, and the combined market capitalisation of these firms is in excess of $1.25 trillion, which includes Visa at $465.13 billion and MasterCard at $344.57 billion, Intuit ($125.34 billion), and Paypal ($84.81 billion), among others.
Chinese fintech companies occupy the second spot in terms of market capitalisation due to fintech giants such as Tencent valued at around $187.92 billion and Ant Financial, which is valued at around $151 billion, taking the total market capitalisation of Chinese fintech companies at around $339 billion. The combined market capitalisation of UK fintech unicorns has been valued at around $73 billion, which is followed by Brazil's $41.5 billion and India's $20 billion.