Fintech Farm Helsinki came up with an updated listing of the largest fintech companies in Finland based on the recently published 2019 figures.
They have now divided the companies into 3 different top 20 listings, which are startups founded since 2015, scaleups founded between 2010 and 2014, and established companies founded before 2010.
“It was positive to see that the entire industry’s revenue has grown into 1.3 billion euros, and that the startups managed to increase their revenue with a praiseworthy 48%.” Fintech Farm Helsinki mentions in a newsletter announcement.
Fintech startups leading the growth
Altogether, the fintech sector in Finland has grown 12.6% from last year, creating revenue of more than 1 296 M€. The biggest growth overall has been in our startup category (companies no more than 5 years old) that has seen an incredible growth of 48% in revenues from 2018. The biggest company currently in this category is the digital gold platform Voima Gold (2nd last year), followed by Enfuce and Silo.AI.
Nine companies are new entrants to the category, out of which compliance startup NordCheck has had a great year, rising to the 4th position. It should be noted that the startups represent various different specialities, ranging from payments companies to robotics and blockchain technology. Seemingly the new batch of fintech companies has various skillsets and the industry has started exploring also new opportunities outside the traditional Finnish strong fields of financing and software.
Fintech scaleups
The new category this year is the scaleup category, which is led by UKKO.fi. The company made almost double the revenue of the second in line company, Saldo Finance. Here it should be called out though that UKKO.fi delivers light entrepreneurship services and counts the salaries paid through its platform as revenue.
The platform has grown in size and increased its revenue by 20 M€ from 2018. Since the category is new, we cannot comment on the developments within it, yet it can be noted that many of the companies here were placed high last year in our overall section and they have kept going strong also this year.Overall, the majority of the companies in this category represent the older companies eligible here, with companies established in 2014 surprisingly missing.
Established fintechs going stablely forward
This category is representing companies that are over 10 years of age. The gold position this year again is taken by Ferratum that made an almost 12% increase in revenues from the year before. Basware and Samlink follow as second and third once again. Interestingly, these 3 companies make almost 60% of the total revenue of this category, similar to the top three of the scaleup category making 65% of the revenue. This shows that the Finnish fintech scene is still dominated by a few very large players. Yet the sector is growing strong – combining the top 20 of the scaleup and established company category we see an increase of 21% in revenues from last year (increase from the 2018 all companies but startups category).
As 2020 grows older, Fintech Farm understands that the figures they will report next year are going to reflect the peculiarities of this year and unfortunately, they have already witnessed some fintech bankruptcies. But the need to digitize and to continue evolving has never been more important. Innovating during a global pandemic might seem hard and scary, but that is especially when innovation is needed.
Source: Fintech Farm Helsinki, https://www.helsinkifintech.fi/news/biggest-fintech-companies-and-startups-in-finland/
