I don’t like lists. Most are subjective, incorrect and silly. Nevertheless I decided to make a list today of the greatest fintech firms in the world. It is purely from a personal perspective and nothing to do with valuation, relationships or brown envelopes, although the latter is always welcome. So here it is: Chris Skinner’s Top 10 fintech firms, 2025 …
- Adyen
- Ant Group
- Checkout.com*
- Chime
- Coinbase
- Flutterwave
- Klarna
- Nubank
- Revolut
- Stripe
I picked these ten firms as they pop up on my radar more than many others. It has nothing to do with value or success; just interest and connection. Therefore, purely to share with this audience, here’s a brief overview of each one.
Adyen is a Dutch payment company with the status of an acquiring bank that allows businesses to accept e-commerce, mobile, and point-of-sale payments. It is listed on the stock exchange Euronext Amsterdam, and currently valued at near €50 billion. Most often compared to Stripe (see below), they offer a single platform that simplifies payment acceptance, processing, and settlement—both online and in-person—for businesses as well as marketplaces.
Ant Group, formerly known as Ant Financial, is an affiliate company of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group. The group owns the world’s largest mobile (digital) payment platform Alipay, which serves over 1.3 billion users and 80 million merchants. It is the second largest financial services corporation in the world, behind Visa.
Checkout.com* is a British multinational financial technology company that processes payments for other companies. Founded as Opus Payments in 2009, it is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It had a valuation of $40 billion in 2022, making it the most valuable European fintech startup. Customers include Netflix, Pizza Hut, and digital asset exchange Coinbase.
Chime was founded by Chris Britt (CEO) and Ryan King (CTO) in 2012 in San Francisco, California as an alternative to traditional banking to serve less affluent communities and people living paycheck to paycheck. The company launched on April 15, 2014 and, as of 2021, had raised $2.3 billion in private funding. In 2022, Chime was named as one of Fortune’s Best Places to Work.
Coinbase is an American technology company founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong. It operates the largest U.S. based cryptocurrency exchange. As of 2024, Coinbase has 108 million users and is the world’s biggest bitcoin custodian, holding 12% of the total supply and managing over US$400 billion in assets.
Flutterwave was founded in 2016 by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Olugbenga Agboola, and Adeleke Adekoya and is headquartered in San Francisco, California with current operations in the U.S., Canada, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, and 29 other African countries. In 2021, Flutterwave raised a US$170 million Series C funding round, the largest amount ever secured by an African tech startup and gave it a valuation of over US$1 billion. Investors include Y-Combinator, Visa Ventures, Mastercard, Avenir Growth Capital, and Tiger Global Management.
Klarna is a Swedish fintech company that provides buy now, pay later payment processing services. The company has more than 5,000 employees, mainly in Stockholm and Berlin. In 2021, the company handled about US$80 billion in online sales and is reported to be planning an IPO in the U.S. in April 2025, with a target valuation of $15bn valuation.
Nubank is a Brazilian neobank headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil. It is the largest fintech bank in Latin America, with around 88 million customers in Brazil and 6 million between Mexico and Colombia and a revenue of $8 billion. At its initial public offering in December 2021, Nubank was valued at $45 billion. Its most recent announcement is a partnership with Tyme Bank, based in South Africa, to launch financial services in Asia as a partner agreement.
Revolut is a British multinational neobank and fintech company that offers banking services for individuals and businesses. It was founded in July 2015 by British-Russian businessman Nikolay Storonsky and British-Ukrainian software engineer Vlad Yatsenko. As of August 2024, Revolut is valued at $45 billion, making it the most valuable private tech company in Europe. In a recent report, it is noteworthy that 94% of Revolut’s 50 million users are in Europe with 68% coming of their £1.2 billion fee income revenue coming from the EEA and 29% from the UK. Plans today include greater expansion in the Americas and Africa.
Stripe is a company headquartered in both San Francisco and Dublin. The company offers payment-processing software and application programming interfaces for e-commerce websites and mobile applications. It is the largest privately-owned fintech company handling over $1 trillion in payment volume in 2023. There have been reports in February 2025, that Stripe is in talks for sale of shares to staff with a valuation of more than $91 billion.
* There is controversy around Checkout for working with clients such as OnlyFans and Pornhub, deemed too risky by its competitors and there is now an ongoing lawsuit linking Checkout to a mysterious Cypriot entity historically listed on a mail-order bride website and once a client of Paxum Bank, known to serve the porn industry.
