Valued at $2.2 billion in 2021, African money-transfer startup Chipper Cash was slow to adapt to the funding collapse of 2022. Now, after layoffs and a deep valuation cut, it’s focusing on the basics–and profitability. Jeff Kauflin, Forbes Staff The layoffs at Chipper Cash, a five-year-old fintech startup that lets African consumers send money to each other, started slowly. In July 2022, four recruiters were dismissed. Seven quality assurance engineers came next, two months later. On a Sunday...

very year for the Fintech 50, our annual list of the most innovative fintech startups, we evaluate hundreds of new companies that have never earned a spot before. Despite the rough patch many fintech entrepreneurs are going through with abundant layoffs and shrinking valuations, some standout founders led their companies to impressive innovation and growth in 2022. On this year’s Fintech 50 (our eighth annual), 19 honorees were newcomers. Profiled below are the entrepreneurs behind a...

Venture capital funding is down dramatically, but innovation is still thriving, with 19 of the companies on our eighth annual honor roll new to the list. Reported by Steven Ehrlich, Jeff Kauflin, Emily Mason, Jonathan Ponciano and Hank Tucker A s publicly traded fintech stocks remain in a slump, down 60% on average from their late 2021 peak, private fintech startups are similarly slogging through challenging times. Venture capitalists have pulled back, investing $75 billion globally into...

From startups protecting against cyber attacks to a new home insurer aiming to hold down costs with a digital-first approach, six insurtech businesses made our Fintech 50. Over the past year, some insurtech companies have faced an even tougher road than those in other beleaguered categories of fintech—witness the now-public stocks of Fintech 50 alumni Lemonade, Hippo and Root, which are down 75% to 99% from their peaks. Yet six private insurtech companies made our Fintech 50 for 2023, with...

From lenders targeting lower-income customers to a hotel reservation app that has branched into credit cards, eight personal finance companies made this year’s Fintech 50. C onsumer-facing startups have been among the hardest hit as the fintech industry has gone through the upheavals of shrinking market values and desperate moves, including deep layoffs, designed to preserve capital. Still, some have proven resilient and have continued to innovate–and to fulfill fintech’s promise of bringing...