5 Innovative European Fintechs to Watch in 2022
While the COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on numerous global industries, in others, it did have some positive side effects. Over the past 12 months, certain types of financial technology attracted a surge in interest from VCs and angel investors.
With many countries imposing lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, European fintechs tapped into a new, captive audience. Their goal was to deliver innovative banking, real estate, insurance, and investment options that consumers could access from the safety and convenience of their smartphones.
In this article, we look at five European fintech companies that are poised to see continued growth in the coming months.
1. Klarna
Klarna is a payment solution for online stores providing consumers with the option to “buy now, pay later.” Through its flashy ad campaigns, catchy slogans, and pink branding, Klarna entices customers with instant credit at checkout options, enabling buyers to spread the cost of items they wish to purchase over set monthly installments.
Operating throughout the United States, Australia, and Europe, Klarna was founded in Sweden. The majority of its profit is derived from retailers, who pay a commission on each transaction. The company also makes an undisclosed amount from charging consumers interest and late fees on missed payments.
Klarna has been criticized in recent years for failing to alert consumers to the dangers of getting into, sparking calls from pressure groups for clearer advertising standards. In spite of this negative press, Klarna’s corporate value hit $45.6 billion in 2021, making it the second most valuable fintech in existence today.
2. Nethone
Nethone is an anti-fraud payment solution provider that helps clients improve their online businesses. Boasting a 95.3 percent success rate in blocking account takeovers, Nethone helps businesses to simultaneously prevent fraud and increase sales.
The platform analyzes network characteristics, hardware, and user behavior, uncovering users’ motivations and detecting fraud, all in less than a second. The tool extracts more than 5,000 attributes for every single user, allowing it to go beyond the collection of declarative data.
Developed by a team of tech enthusiasts, Nethone’s API essentially serves as a data analysis hub, providing online businesses with in-depth insights into user behavior. Having spent years gathering data and crunching numbers, Nethone’s team has developed automated methods of spotting non-obvious patterns and correlations, providing clients with actionable insights specific to their industry at a lightning-fast pace.
According to reports, Nethone has raised more than $6.7 million in capital to date.
3. Starling Bank
Founded in 2014 by Anne Boden, former Chief Operations Officer of Allied Irish Banks, this digital bank provides both personal banking and business banking solutions. Since obtaining a UK banking license in 2016, Starling’s customer-base has soared to more than 2.5 million. In 2021, Starling Bank acquired lender Fleet Mortgages in a deal worth a reported £50 million, bringing £1.75 billion in mortgages under Starling’s wing.
Starling Bank raised £272 million in new funding in 2021, culminating in a total business valuation of £1.3 billion. It counts Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund among its investors.
Predicted to go public by 2024, this fully licensed, regulated, award-winning bank states that its mission is to provide people with a smarter, fairer, more human alternative to traditional banking. It offers personal, business, teen, euro, and dollar accounts, as well as child cards and an assortment of lending products.
4. Monzo
Having onboarded more than 5 million customers at the last count, Monzo has positioned itself as a millennial-friendly neobank. It is one of the darlings of London’s fintech scene. The startup cites its main aim as removing the hassle from personal finances, incorporating a range of progressive features, including gambling blocks, to save customers money and encourage them to make smarter financial choices.
Rather than simply selling financial products, Monzo solves problems for its customers, treating them fairly, and remaining transparent to make banking more equitable. Following the appointment of a new CEO to replace Tom Blomfield, Monzo’s founder, the company experienced a slight dip in value. However, it managed to retain its “unicorn” status, with a valuation of circa £1.25 billion.
5. Auxmoney
In a 2020 funding round, this German peer-to-peer lending platform secured €150m in investment. Auxmoney touts itself as Europe’s leading digital lending platform for consumer credit, promoting and facilitating financial inclusion. Auxmoney helps people who might struggle to obtain a loan via conventional routes to access funding via digital routes. The platform helps self-employed people who are often rejected by banks despite having a good credit rating.
Auxmoney makes it faster and more convenient to take out a loan, connecting customers with products that are tailored to their needs. Approximately 70 percent of loans facilitated by Auxmoney are provided fully automatically.
Committed to responsible lending, the company aims to simplify the lending process for customers and partners, endeavoring to provide the smartest, most efficient solution for every problem. Recognizing that many people are effectively excluded from traditional bank credit offerings, even when creditworthy, Auxmoney evaluates thousands of features stringently to determine real creditworthiness, promoting responsible lending access for all.
Originally published at http://carltonjamesguyana.com on March 24, 2022.