The Complete List of Fintech Unicorns in the UK in 2023
It’s no surprise that London has developed into a “superhub” for FinTech operations, given its status as a global commercial center and residence to some of the world’s top financial institutions. UK Fintech unicorns like Revolut and Checkout.com, which are household brands in the field, hail from the United Kingdom, which is home to 10% of the world’s Fintech unicorns. The country is second only to the United States in terms of effect and population. Ten companies have achieved the coveted unicorn status in the last ten months alone, demonstrating the rapid expansion of the industry.
What is a Fintech Unicorn Startup?
You can findfFintech unicorn meaning in here. The term “unicorn” refers to a privately held corporation with a market value of at least $1 billion. Financial performance metrics or an equity fundraising round can be used to attain this valuation. “Soonicorns” are start-ups that are on the verge of joining the exclusive club of companies with a market capitalization in excess of $1 billion. Within the next 24 months, investors expect these start-ups to break through to unicorn status.
How Many Unicorns Can You Count in the United Kingdom?
If you ask how many fintech unicorns are there you can find the answer in this paragraph. An all-time high of 85 European tech unicorns will be attained by the end of 2021, with 41 of those coming from the United Kingdom. An estimate by the European Unicorn & Soonicorn states that the United Kingdom and Ireland have produced 38% of the total European unicorn value and about 40,000 jobs as a result. Although the UK is quickly becoming a factory for these innovative companies, 48% of capital still comes from outside Europe, with the vast majority of investors situated in the United States of America (the USA).
Fintech Unicorn Startups
Atom
The UK’s first regulated digital bank, Atom, has debuted. Atom’s goal is to offer a complete range of banking services for both individuals and businesses. Banks are expected to begin offering a variety of financial services, including a current account and credit card as well as mortgages for residential properties. This company was valued at 150 million pounds when they received their banking license in June of 2019 from the Spanish bank BBVA.
Wise
Peer-to-peer and business-to-business money transfer services. TransferWise is available. Converts money at the interbank rate with a 0.5 percent fee for the service. In 39 nations, it can handle 17 different currencies. The corporation has bank accounts in every country where it does business and uses a currency swapping mechanism to do business in those nations. Max Levchin, the founder of PayPal, is one of these strategic angels. The Series B and C rounds included participation from Sir Richard Branson.
Rapyd
Rapyd is a cardless infrastructure network supported by the global ATM, kiosk, bank, and merchant network. This API enables retailers to take payments in a variety of currencies and to handle international transactions. As a result, cardless transactions can be made using smartphones and feature phones.
Oaknorth
We’re discussing technology. Technology that uses machine learning and data to give commercial lenders a 360-degree view of their borrowers is called Oaknorth and is the first in the industry. Everyone in the financial sector, from relationship managers to portfolio and risk managers, now has the ability to communicate with their customers, make better credit choices, predict difficulties, and offer solutions. In terms of RORE and efficiency, OakNorth Bank is among the top one percent of UK banks, having been built by a team of over 250 engineers and credit scientists over a five-year period of time.
Checkout.com
It’s a fintech company situated in London with the UK’s highest value For businesses, Checkout.com simplifies the payment procedure. Boosting payment acceptance rates in every major market is its primary goal of retailers. Increasing the number of card payment choices available to their clients is a benefit to them. During this year’s series D financing, the company raised $1 billion.
Revolut
Revolut began as a money transfer and exchange service in 2015. Currently, the company has 18 million customers and offers a wide range of services including bank accounts, international transfers, cryptocurrency exchanges, and early salary payouts, all of which are supported by over 30 in-app currencies. Series D funding of $580 million (£444 million) was secured by Revolut in 2020.
SumUp
You may accept credit card payments with SumUp, which is one of the simplest ways to do so. Businesses of all sizes can benefit from SumUp’s offerings, from street performers to brick-and-mortar retailers.
Founded in 2012 and valued at more than $1 billion in 2019, SumUp is the world’s fastest-growing mobile payment platform. As of now, SumUp has acquired six firms and raised over $1 billion in funds through these acquisitions.
PPRO
PPRO, one of London’s FinTech unicorns, provides the payment infrastructure for international trade companies.
Tobias Schreyer founded PPRO in 2006 with Philipp Bock and Philipp Nieland, and the business achieved unicorn status in 2021 in a round in which it received £132 million in funding. In late 2020, the company’s expansion was critical to becoming a unicorn. In the final quarter of 2020, it more than doubled its transaction volume and more than doubled the size of its global crew.
GoCardless
GoCardless, one of London’s first fintech success stories, has become a unicorn with a valuation of $2.1 billion after winning a $312 million fundraising round just last month. Prior to Klarna’s acquisition by Permira, the Series G funding round was spearheaded by the investment firm. Aiming to become “the world’s top network for direct transactions,” the fintech processes more than $25 billion in transactions annually.
Paying directly from a customer’s bank account is easy with GoCardless, a global leader in account-to-account payments.
From multinational corporations to small businesses, GoCardless’ global payments network and technology platform makes getting paid easy for 65,000 businesses worldwide. Each year GoCardless processes US$30B billion of payments across more than 30 countries. GoCardless is headquartered in the UK, with additional offices in Australia, France, Germany, and the United States.
GoCardless was founded by Hiroki Takeuchi, who manages direct debit collection on behalf of merchants. They have raised $529.3M in funding over ten rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Feb 8, 2022, from a Series G round.
Lendable
Lendable uses AI and automation to provide loans that don’t affect credit scores in a timely manner. Investors and borrowers are connected through loans, credit cards, and car loans on the site. The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan led a $210 million funding round for the London-based start-up this year.
Starling Bank
If you’re looking for the best FinTech in London, you can’t go wrong with Revolut, Monzo, Monese and of course, Starling Bank. Its creator, Anne Boden, is one of the most significant women business leaders in the UK startup community. In March 2021, her company became the country’s 10th unicorn FinTech, making it one of the most valuable startups in the country.
Over 2.1 million people use Starling Bank, which launched in 2014. Despite having fewer customers than some of its rivals, Starling Bank was named Britain’s Best Bank four years in a row at the British Banking Awards.
Monzo
Monzo, a digital bank, became a unicorn in 2018 after raising $85 million in a round of financing. Carol Nelson, the company’s first female CEO, is now in charge of US operations following the retirement of former CEO Tom Blomfield in 2020. However, this is despite the fact that the company withdrew its application for a US banking license in October of last year after being informed that it was unlikely to be approved. But Monzo is still growing, with over 5 million users worldwide and the debut of a new BNPL product, Monzo Flex, at the end of last year.
Blockchain.com
Blockchain.com is a platform that offers ways to buy, hold, and use cryptocurrency. It’s been a leading crypto finance house serving people, projects, protocols, and institutions since 2011.
Blockchain.com is connecting the world to the future of finance. They are the most trusted and fastest-growing crypto company, helping millions across the globe – from single individuals to the most prominent institutions – have an easy and safe way to buy, sell and store cryptocurrency.
Blockchain.com’s headquarter is in London, England, United Kingdom. Nicolas Cary is the founder of Blockchain.com. They have raised $490M in funding over seven rounds.
Known as the world’s most popular crypto wallet, Blockchain.com is on a path to revolutionising the $14T financial services industry. Blockchain.com is backed by leading investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Google Ventures.
ManyPets (Formerly Bought By Many)
ManyPets is a pet insurance company that looks after your pet’s health.
The co-founders of ManyPets are Steven Mendel and Guy Farley. The company headquarters is in London. They’re on a mission to make the world a better place for pets and their parents. They offer pet insurance policies with generous pet health benefits designed with their needs. They’ve also won numerous awards, have offices in the USA, UK, and Sweden – and they now employ over 400 people globally.
Their company is fast-paced, respectful, fun-loving and (most importantly) passionate about pets and their well-being. They rank 30th on the Tech Track 100 and their latest Series D funding round was $350m, which values us at $2bn.
TrueLayer
TrueLayer is a global open banking platform that makes it easy for anyone to build better financial experiences. It’s been used by millions of consumers and businesses around the world. From startups to large enterprises, businesses of every size can use TrueLayer to power their payments, access financial insights, and onboard customers across Europe, the UK, and Australia.
TrueLayer was founded in 2016 by Francesco Simoneschi and Luca Martinetti. They established TrueLayer in London, England. TrueLayer vision is to create a financial system that works for everyone. According to CrunchBase, they have raised $271.5M in funding over eight rounds. Their latest funding was from a Series E round on Sep 21, 2021.
Zopa
Zopa is a British financial services company that offers deposit accounts and credit cards. It began as the world’s first peer-to-peer lending company in 2005 and gained a full banking license in 2020. With this service, borrowers and lenders deal directly, bypassing banks that act as middlemen, and lenders can make direct loans to one another.
Zopa was launched in the UK in March 2005. The co-founders of Zoppa are Richard Duvall, James Alexander, Giles Andrews, David Nicholson, and Tim Parlett. Recently, Zopa has been named the British Bank Awards’ Best Personal Loan Provider, and they have raised a total of $792.3M in funding over 16 rounds. The latest funding was raised on Feb 2, 2023, from a Venture-Series Unknown round.
They keep improving their savings product line-up. Their newest product is Zopa Smart Saver. It enables customers to have multiple saving pots at different interest rates and with varying access requirements – all in one place. So, it balances ease of access and enhanced interest rates from a single dashboard.
Zilch
Zilch is a virtual Mastercard. It’s as safe as using your bank card. This pay later app, funded by six investors in London, allows its customers to shop wherever Mastercard is accepted.
Zilch has raised $339.3M in funding over five rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Nov 10, 2021, from a Series C round. Zilch acquired NepFin on Aug 11, 2021. Their latest investors are Gauss Ventures and Ventura Capital.
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The Other Fintech Unicorns (14) in the UK You Should be Aware Of:
If you are interested to learn more about up and coming FinTech startups, look nowhere else. We gathered top FinTech startups of London that you should watch out for in 2023.
Conclusion
The number of fintech unicorns (startups valued at $1 billion or more) has increased significantly in recent years. According to this list, 15 of the 24 active unicorns reached their $1 billion value in 2021, indicating that there has been a significant increase in fintech firms following the covid lockdowns.
If this is the case, the future of UK-based businesses in the financial industry is looking brighter than ever.
We’ve compiled a thorough list of UK-based top fintech unicorns in this post.
You can also check if you are wondering about how to build a unicorn.
