Fintech companies headquartered in the United States and China lead the ranking of the largest fintech companies worldwide by market capitalization. As of January 2024, the two largest companies were the payment companies Visa and Mastercard, both headquartered in the United States, with a market capitalization of roughly 520 and 396 billion U.S. dollars, respectively. Intuit, a company that develops financial, accounting, and tax preparation software, ranked third, and Chinese Tencent ranked fourth with a market capitalization of 146 billion U.S. dollars. European-headquartered companies, such as Stripe, Adyen, and Revolut, were also among the top fintech companies by market capitalization.
United States: the land of unicorns
The fintech sector is famous for being filled with successful companies that have turned into unicorns. The term unicorn refers to a privately held startup company that has a valuation that exceeds one billion U.S. dollars. The United States had not only the largest fintech companies, but also the highest number of fintech unicorns. In addition, five out of the ten most valuable fintech unicorns were headquartered in the United States.
Do people trust fintech companies?
Fintech companies offer financial services similar to those offered by banks or wealth managers. However, this new way of providing financial services is not equally trusted by everyone. A survey conducted in 2021 in the United States, for instance, showed that trust in fintech companies compared to banks varies based on age group: People aged between 18 and 24 appeared to be more likely to trust fintech companies, while people aged 65+ trust banks more.
