- Insider asked more than 40 investors to nominate promising fintechs.
- Investors nominated startups both inside and out of their portfolio.
- Fintechs serving businesses, as opposed to consumers, were the vast majority of nominations.
Some of the country’s top investors have placed their bets on the most promising fintechs to watch — and startups that provide back-end tech to other businesses dominated the series.
Forty-two investors — including QED Investors, Two Sigma, and Citi Ventures — named a total 70 startups to watch. The nominations included a mix of fintechs investors have in their portfolio in addition to ones they are impressed by despite having no financial interest.
The vast majority (57) were fintechs that cater to businesses, known as B2B, as opposed to those serving consumers directly.
It was a big year for financial tech startups too, with 20% of all VC investment globally going to fintech, for a record $33.7 billion (a 191% year-over-year increase), according to second-quarter data from CB Insights.
Among the B2B fintechs, infrastructure, payments, and payroll were popular areas of focus. On the consumer-facing front, investors nominated personal-finance apps catering to specific demographics, like teens, immigrants, and the LGBTQ+ markets.