World's leading fintech ecosystems revealed. Where does India stand? (2024)

India is among the leading fintech ecosystems in the world, with as many as 17 fintech ‘unicorns’ in the country, next only to the USA and UK, respectively, a CNBC-Statista report has found.

Additionally, seven Indian firms are among top 200 fintech companies in the world, as per the study.

First, what is a ‘unicorn’?

Put simply, it is a venture-backed company with a valuation of $1 billion or more.

Largest fintech ecosystems

According to the report, the United States is home to 134 unicorns, and, therefore, produces the most value in terms of fintech. Of the top 15 highest-valued financial technology firms globally, eight are from the US. The combined valuation of these eight unicorns – which include Visa ($465.13 billion) and MasterCard ($344.57 billion) – is a staggering $1.2 trillion.

China came second, despite being home to only eight unicorns. These, however, include giants such as Tencent ($187.92 billion) and Ant Financial ($151 billion), taking the country's overall financial market capitlisation to $338.92 billion.

The UK, on the other hand, has 27 fintech unicorns, followed by India (17) and China; Brazil, Germany, and France (six each) are next. Mexico and Singapore (five each), and the Netherlands (four), round off the top 10.

Top 200 fintech companies

For this, CNBC-Statista analysed 1500 firms across nine different market segments – neobanking, digital payments, digital assets, digital financial planning, digital wealth management, alternate financing, alternate lending, digital banking solutions, and digital business solutions.

The United States came on top here as well, accounting for 65 companies, while the UK (15) came a distant second. From India, these companies made their way to the list (in alphabetical order):

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