As of January 2024, the Americas (North America, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean) were the region with the largest number of fintechs globally. There were approximately 13,100 fintechs in the Americas, almost 1,500 more than a year before that. In comparison, there were 10,969 fintechs in the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) and 5,886 in the Asia Pacific region. In 2023, the United States ranked first in terms of the number of fintech unicorns globally, having roughly five times more of these companies than the United Kingdom, which ranked second.
Fintech investment landscape
Investment into the fintech sector grew sharply during the last decade, with global investment value reaching an all-time high in 2021. In 2022, however, investment activity slowed down considerably, with the Americas seeing a particularly large drop in investment value. The decline in the value of investments was most likely caused by the economic contraction triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leading fintech companies
Services provided by fintech companies have become a part of everyday life in recent years, with more and more fintechs emerging every year. Most fintech companies originate from the United States and China, and these two countries were also home to eight out of the 10 largest fintech companies worldwide in January 2024. Despite the dominance of the U.S. and China, in 2022, the most valuable fintech unicorn in the world was the Irish payment processing platform, Stripe.
