1. Mobile Payments: Square is known for its mobile payment solutions, including Square Reader for in-person transactions. 2. Small Business Focus: It targets small and local businesses. 3. Holistic Ecosystem: Square offers various business services beyond payments.
Providing simple, accessible, and integrated payment and business solutions for local and small businesses to thrive.
Small businesses, local retailers, service providers
Mobile devices, point-of-sale hardware, online platforms.
PayPal
1. Global Reach: PayPal is widely accepted internationally, allowing users to make and receive payments across borders. 2. Ease of Use: It offers a user-friendly platform for online transactions. 3. Payment Security: PayPal prioritizes security and fraud prevention.
Enabling secure and convenient online payments for individuals and businesses, with a focus on international transactions.
1. Developer-Centric: Stripe provides tools and APIs for developers to build customized payment solutions. 2. Scalability: It caters to businesses of all sizes, from startups to enterprises. 3. Subscription Billing: Stripe offers subscription management tools.
Empowering businesses to accept and manage online payments with customizable solutions and support for scaling.
1. Commission-Free Trading: Robinhood popularized commission-free stock trading. 2. User-Friendly App: The mobile app offers a user-friendly experience. 3. Fractional Shares: Allowing users to invest with small amounts of money.
Democratizing finance by making investing accessible to everyone with commission-free trading and a user-centric app experience.
Millennial investors, first-time investors
Mobile app, online platform.
Coinbase
1. Cryptocurrency Exchange: Coinbase is a prominent cryptocurrency exchange platform. 2. Security Focus: Emphasizing security measures for crypto assets. 3. Educational Resources: Offering resources for crypto education.
Providing a secure and user-friendly platform for buying, selling, and managing cryptocurrencies while educating users about the crypto space.
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts, investors, traders
Online platform, mobile app.
Venmo
1. Social Integration: Venmo incorporates social elements, allowing users to share payments and interact with friends. 2. P2P Payments: It specializes in peer-to-peer transactions. 3. Mobile App: Venmo is primarily accessed via mobile.
Facilitating social and personal payments among friends and acquaintances through an easy-to-use mobile app.
Young adults, social users, individuals
Mobile app, limited online platforms.
Adyen
1. Global Payment Solutions: Adyen provides payment processing solutions for online and in-store transactions globally. 2. Unified Commerce: It offers a unified platform for online and offline payments. 3. Data-Driven Insights: Using data for optimization.
Enabling businesses to accept payments seamlessly across channels and geographies while leveraging data insights for optimization and growth.
Online and offline payment solutions, customized integrations.
Revolut
1. Multi-Currency Accounts: Revolut allows users to hold and transact in multiple currencies with interbank exchange rates. 2. Crypto Support: It offers cryptocurrency trading and wallets. 3. Global Spending: Low-cost international spending.
Empowering users to manage their finances globally with multi-currency accounts, cryptocurrency access, and cost-effective international spending.
Travelers, international professionals, crypto enthusiasts
Mobile app, online platform.
TransferWise
1. Transparent Fees: TransferWise provides transparent and low-cost international money transfers. 2. Borderless Accounts: Users can hold money in multiple currencies. 3. Business Solutions: TransferWise for Business caters to companies.
Offering affordable and transparent international money transfers, borderless accounts, and tailored business solutions for companies with international operations.
Individuals, expatriates, businesses
Online platform, mobile app.
SoFi
1. Financial Services: SoFi offers a range of financial products, including loans, investments, and insurance. 2. Member Benefits: Membership includes career coaching and financial planning. 3. Robo-Advisory: Automated investment services.
Providing a holistic approach to financial wellness by offering loans, investments, career services, and personalized advice to members.
Millennials, young professionals, borrowers
Online platform, mobile app.
Plaid
1. Financial Data Infrastructure: Plaid provides APIs that connect applications with users’ financial accounts. 2. Data Security: Focusing on secure and reliable data connectivity. 3. Developer Ecosystem: Supporting fintech innovation.
Enabling fintech apps to access and use financial data securely, fostering innovation and empowering developers to build financial services and applications.
1. No-Fee Banking: Chime offers a no-fee checking and savings account with early direct deposit. 2. Mobile-First: Chime is primarily accessed via mobile. 3. Automatic Savings: Helping users save effortlessly.
Providing a fee-free mobile banking experience that focuses on convenience, early access to funds, and automatic savings features.
Millennials, budget-conscious individuals
Mobile app, online platform.
Affirm
1. Buy Now, Pay Later: Affirm enables shoppers to make purchases with installment payments. 2. Transparent Financing: Clear terms and no hidden fees. 3. Merchant Partnerships: Affirm partners with online retailers.
Offering transparent and flexible financing options at the point of sale, allowing consumers to budget and pay for purchases over time without hidden costs.
Online shoppers, e-commerce retailers
Integration with online retailers, mobile app.
Alipay
1. Digital Wallet: Alipay serves as a digital wallet for users in China. 2. Mobile Payments: Extensive use of mobile payments in China. 3. FinTech Services: Expanding into financial services, including wealth management.
Providing a comprehensive digital payment and financial ecosystem in China, facilitating mobile payments and access to a wide range of financial services.
Chinese consumers, tourists, merchants
Mobile app, online platform, merchant partnerships.
WeChat Pay
1. Integration with WeChat: WeChat Pay is tightly integrated with the WeChat social platform in China. 2. Mobile Payments: Dominant in mobile payments within China. 3. QR Code Payments: QR codes for transactions.
Seamlessly integrating payment functionality into the WeChat app, offering convenient and widespread mobile payment solutions through QR codes and social connections.
Chinese consumers, businesses, tourists
WeChat app, online platform.
N26
1. Digital Banking: N26 offers mobile-based banking services with no hidden fees. 2. Global Banking: Available in multiple countries. 3. Savings and Investment Features: Offering various financial products.
Empowering users with a mobile-first, global banking experience that includes transparency, accessibility, and savings and investment opportunities.
Mobile-centric users, international travelers
Mobile app, online platform.
Wise (formerly TransferWise)
1. Transparent Fees: Wise offers low-cost international money transfers with transparent exchange rates. 2. Multi-Currency Account: Users can hold money in various currencies. 3. Borderless Debit Card: Spending in multiple currencies.
Enabling individuals and businesses to send money internationally with transparency, low fees, and the convenience of multi-currency accounts and debit cards.
Expatriates, international businesses, travelers
Online platform, mobile app.
Greensill
1. Supply Chain Finance: Greensill provides supply chain financing solutions for businesses. 2. Working Capital Optimization: Helping companies manage cash flow. 3. Technology-Driven: Utilizing technology for financial solutions.
Offering innovative supply chain finance solutions and working capital optimization tools, leveraging technology to improve cash flow for businesses globally.
Businesses, suppliers, manufacturers
Online platform, technology-driven solutions.
Affirm
1. Buy Now, Pay Later: Affirm enables shoppers to make purchases with installment payments. 2. Transparent Financing: Clear terms and no hidden fees. 3. Merchant Partnerships: Affirm partners with online retailers.
Offering transparent and flexible financing options at the point of sale, allowing consumers to budget and pay for purchases over time without hidden costs.
Acorns is a fintech platform providing services related to Robo-investing and micro-investing. The company makes money primarily through three subscription tiers: Lite – ($1/month), which gives users access to Acorns Invest, Personal ($3/month) that includes Invest plus the Later (retirement) and Spend (personal checking account) suite of products, Family ($5/month) with features from both the Lite and Personal plans with the addition of Early.
Started as a pay-later solution integrated to merchants’ checkouts, Affirm makes money from merchants’ fees as consumers pick up the pay-later solution. Affirm also makes money through interests earned from the consumer loans, when those are repurchased from the originating bank. In 2020 Affirm made 50% of its revenues from merchants’ fees, about 37% from interests, and the remaining from virtual cards and servicing fees.
Alipay is a Chinese mobile and online payment platform created in 2004 by entrepreneur Jack Ma as the payment arm of Taobao, a major Chinese eCommerce site. Alipay, therefore, is the B2C component of Alibaba Group. Alipay makes money via escrows transaction fees, a range of value-added ancillary services, and through its Credit Pay Instalment fees.
Betterment is an American financial advisory company founded in 2008 by MBA graduate Jon Stein and lawyer Eli Broverman. Betterment makes money via investment plans, financial advice packages, betterment for advisors, betterment for business, cash reserve, and checking accounts.
Venmo is a peer-to-peer payments app enabling users to share and make payments with friends for a variety of services. The service is free, but a 3% fee applies to credit cards. Venmo also launched a debit card in partnership with Mastercard. Venmo got acquired in 2012 by Braintree, and Braintree got acquired in 2013 by PayPal.
Chime is an American neobank (internet-only bank) company, providing fee-free financial services through its mobile banking app, thus providing personal finance services free of charge while making the majority of its money via interchange fees (paid by merchants when consumers use their debit cards) and ATM fees.
Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange domiciled in the Cayman Islands. It was founded in 2017 by Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and Yi He. During a game of poker in 2013, Zhao first learned of the potential of bitcoin. Soon after, he decided to go all-in on the cryptocurrency, selling his apartment to buy as much as he could. Binance revenue generation comes from six key areas: trading, withdrawal, and deposit fees; margin-borrow interest, futures’ trading fees, and cross collateral interest rates.
Coinbase is among the most popular platforms for trading and storing crypto-assets, whose mission is “to create an open financial system for the world” by enabling customers to trade cryptocurrencies. Its platform serves both as a search and discovery engine for crypto assets. The company makes money primarily through fees earned for the transactions processed through the platform, custodial services offered, interest, and subscriptions.
Compass is a licensed American real-estate broker incorporating online real estate technology as a marketing medium. The company makes money via sales commissions (collected whenever a sale is facilitated or tenants are found for a rental property) and bridge loans (a service allowing the seller to purchase a home before the revenue from the sale of their previous home is available).
Dosh is a Fintech platform that enables automatic cash backs for consumers. Its business model connects major card providers with online and offline local businesses to develop automatic cash back programs. The company makes money by earning an affiliate commission on each eligible sale from consumers.
E-Trade is a trading platform, allowing investors to trade common and preferred stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), options, bonds, mutual funds, and futures contracts, acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2020 for $13 billion. E-Trade makes money through interest income, order flow, margin interests, options, future and bonds trading, and through other fees and service charges.
Klarna is a financial technology company allowing consumers to shop with a temporary Visa card. Thus it then performs a soft credit check and pays the merchant. Klarna makes money by charging merchants. Klarna also earns a percentage of interchange fees as a commission and for interests earned on customers’ accounts.
Lemonade is an insurance tech company using behavioral economics and artificial intelligence to process claims efficiently. The company leverages technology to streamline onboarding customers while also applying a financialmodel to reduce conflicts of interest with customers (perhaps by donating the variable premiums to charity). The company makes money by selling its core insurance products, and via its tech platform, it tries to enhance its sales.
Monzo is an English neobank offering a mobile app and a prepaid debit card for consumers and businesses. It was one of the first app-based banks to enter the UK market, founded by Gary Dolman, Jason Bates, Jonas Huckestein, Paul Rippon, and Tom Blomfield in 2015. All were employees of Starling Bank, a similar neobank challenging the dominance of established financial institutions in England. The company enjoys many revenue streams: business and consumer subscriptions, interchange and overdraft fees, personal loans, and more.
NerdWallet is an online platform providing tools and tips on all matters related to personal finance. The company gained traction as a simple web application comparing credit cards. NerdWallet makes money via affiliate commissions determined according to the affiliate agreements.
Quadpay was an American fintech company founded by Adam Ezra and Brad Lindenberg in 2017. Ezra and Lindenberg witnessed the rising popularity of buy-now-pay-later service Afterpay in Australia and similar service Klarna in Europe. Quadpay collects a range of fees from both the merchant and the consumer via merchandise fees, convenience fees, late payment, and interchange fees.
Revolut an English fintech company offering banking and investment services to consumers. Founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, the company initially produced a low-rate travel card. Storonsky in particular was an avid traveler who became tired of spending hundreds of pounds on currency exchange and foreign transaction fees. The Revolut app and core banking account are free to use. Instead, money is made through a combination of subscription fees, transaction fees, perks, and ancillary services.
Robinhood is an app that helps to invest in stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies, all commission-free. Robinhood earns money by offering: Robinhood Gold, a margin trading service, which starts at $6 a month, earn interests from customer cash and stocks, and rebates from market makers and trading venues.
SoFi is an online lending platform that provides affordable education loans to students, and it expanded into financial services, including loans, credit cards, investment services, and insurance. It makes money primarily via payment processing fees and loan securitization.
Squarespace is a North American hosting and website building company. Founded in 2004 by college student Anthony Casalena as a blog hosting service, it grew to become among the most successful website building companies. The company mostly makes money via its subscription plans. It also makes money via customizations on top of its subscription plans. And in part also as transaction fees for the website where it processes the sales.
Stash is a FinTech platform offering a suite of financial tools for young investors, coupled with personalized investment advice and life insurance. The company primarily makes money via subscriptions, cashback, payment for order flows, and interest for cash sitting on members’ accounts.
Venmo is a peer-to-peer payments app enabling users to share and make payments with friends for a variety of services. The service is free, but a 3% fee applies to credit cards. Venmo also launched a debit card in partnership with Mastercard. Venmo got acquired in 2012 by Braintree, and Braintree got acquired in 2013 by PayPal.
Wealthfront is an automated Fintech investment platform providing investment, retirement, and cashmanagement products to retail investors, mostly making money on the annual 0.25% advisory fee the company charges for assets under management. It also makes money via a line of credits and interests on the cash accounts.
Zelle is a peer-to-peer payment network that indirectly benefits the banks’ consortium that backs it. Zelle also enables users to pay businesses for goods and services, free for users. Merchants pay a 1% fee to Visa or Mastercard, who share it with the bank that issued the card.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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