IRVINE, Calif.—With more than 2,000 fintech start-ups in place today, credit unions have a lot to keep their eyes on. To help narrow the focus, Entrepreneur magazine has created a list of the top 12 fintech companies to watch in 2018, including a somewhat ironically named competitor at number 7.
The 12 are:
12. BillGuard: BillGuard alerts customers about irregular activity on their credit card and debit cards via mobile and website applications
11. SoFi: SoFi is an online personal finance company that provides student loan refinancing, mortgages and personal loans
10. Wealthfront: Wealthfront is an automated investment service in the robo-advisor niche, which limits the need for the traditional financial advisors offering clients advice on stocks and mutual funds
9. Robinhood: Robinhood is a smartphone app that allows customers to invest in publicly traded companies and exchange-traded funds listed on U.S. exchanges through their smartphones without paying a commission
8. Kabbage: Headquartered in Atlanta, Kabbage provides funding directly to small businesses and consumers through an automated lending platform
7. Commonbond: CommonBond is a marketplace lender that lowers the cost of student loans for borrowers and provides financial returns to investors
6. Addepar: Addepar is an investment management technology company that offers an integrated financial software platform. Single and multi-family offices, wealth advisors, large financial institutions, and endowments and foundations use it.
5. Lending Club: Headquartered in San Francisco, Lending Club is a U.S. peer-to-peer lending company. Borrowers can obtain a loan and investors can purchase notes backed by payments made on loans
4. Adyen: Based in Amsterdam, Adyen provides businesses with a single solution to accept payments anywhere in the world
3. Braintree: With offices in Chicago, San Francisco, London, Sydney and Singapore, Braintree is a mobile and web payment systems for e-commerce companies
2. YapStone: YapStone is an electronic payment processing platform for hospitals, non-profits and housing associations helping businesses and consumers to make payments
1. Stripe: Stripe is an Irish technology company that allows individuals and businesses to accept payments over the internet. Its main competitor is PayPal