Here are 49 of the most promising fintech startups transforming how we bank, invest, work, and pay, according to 27 top investors

Cited by: Theory Ventures (investor)

Total raised: $21.5 million

What it does: Allium provides blockchain data for companies.

Why it’s on the list: “Allium offers quick and simple enterprise-grade blockchain data for leading institutions and companies like Visa, Stripe, Uniswap Foundation, and Phantom,” Tomasz Tunguz, a general partner at Theory Ventures, said. The startup’s suite of data products covers more than 40 blockchains and more than 100 schemas, or blueprints for how data is organized, which “delivers high-quality blockchain data wherever and however customers need it,” Tunguz added.

Cited by: Accel

Total raised: $54 million

What it does: Anrok is building a sales-tax solution for software-as-a-service businesses.

Why it’s on the list: “Anrok is following the classic API playbook; abstracting away a surprisingly complex yet necessary piece of infrastructure into its own layer and making it about as developer and user-friendly as possible,” Amit Kumar, a partner at Accel, said. “They’re still working their way up the complexity curve to handle all the long-tail scenarios, but the progress they’ve made is impressive, as indicated by the consistently positive feedback I hear about them from founders and developers in my network.”

Cited by: Inspired Capital

Total raised: $16 million

What it does: Authentic enables businesses to easily launch and manage their own insurance programs instead of buying insurance from a broker or carrier to create new revenue streams, tailor coverage, and lower insurance premiums.

Why it’s on the list: “This approach is compelling to companies because it dramatically reduces the complexity of setting this up while increasing customer retention and generating significant revenue,” Alexa von Tobel, the founder and managing partner at Inspired Capital, said.

Cited by: Deciens Capital (investor)

Total raised: More than $150 million

What it does: BeatBread uses advanced machine learning to analyze and predict revenue potential for the music industry, providing funding advances to a broad range of artists.

Why it’s on the list: “Artists of all sizes want independence and ownership over their music, to work with their preferred partners, and to control their own destinies. Historically, there hasn’t been a real alternative to the major label advance for artists to get the capital they needed to scale their careers, which locks them into the label ecosystem,” Dan Kimerling, the managing partner at Deciens Capital, said.

“2024 has been a pivotal year for BeatBread, marked by strategic moves and partnerships that further solidify its mission,” Kimerling said, referring to its partnerships with the administrative publishing company Kobalt and its subsidiary AMRA to offer artists increased royalties and faster payments. Other strategic moves include a series of deals providing funding to independent labels to expand how BeatBread provides capital to artists.

Cited by: TTV Capital, Homebrew

Total funding: $8.1 million

What it does: Brico helps financial institutions and fintechs manage their licensing by using automation to simplify applications and renewals.

Why it’s on the list: “With Brico, businesses can effortlessly navigate the complexities of acquiring, renewing, and managing compliance for various financial licenses — including Credit, Money Transmitter, Mortgage Loan Originator, and more — in all 50 states,” Lizzie Guynn, a partner at TTV Capital, said. “Brico makes regulatory compliance seamless and cost-effective with its user-friendly tools that reduce time and money spent on financial licenses.”

“It’s addressing a very manual and expensive process that nearly every financial services company needs to deal with on an annual basis,” Satya Patel, a partner at Homebrew, said.

Cited by: Everywhere Ventures

Total raised: $33.5 million

What it does: Capitalize helps people roll over their old 401ks efficiently and without a cost.

Why it’s on the list: “I finally got frustrated receiving so many statements and trying to keep track of all my old 401ks so I decided to roll them over. Not so easy it turns out! I came across Capitalize and was excited to see that I could outsource the hassle. I appreciated that it was free and fast and now I have all my accounts in one place,” Jenny Fielding, cofounder and managing partner at Everywhere Ventures, said.

“For many years, financial institutions held customers hostage because the paperwork and time it took to change accounts or consolidate just didn’t seem worth it,” she added. “But now, with APIs and AI, a lot of the tedious work can be automated away, providing more functionality and choice for consumers.”

Cited by: Flourish Ventures (investor)

Total raised: $41 million

What it does: Clerkie embeds its AI debt-automation software in financial institutions’ mobile apps, allowing consumers to make financial decisions about their debts and discover solutions if they’re struggling to pay them off.

Why it’s on the list: “Clerkie’s data flywheel and network create a win-win scenario for both consumers and financial institutions. Consumers enjoy a seamless experience within their banking app, with flexible solutions tailored to their specific cash flow needs, helping them avoid the collections process and protect their credit scores. Banks benefit from direct ROI through loan repayment while maintaining customer relationships,” while also expanding loan-to-value ratios, Flourish Ventures’ Emmalyn Shaw said.

She added that “Clerkie assumes no balance-sheet risk, serving as the debt-network and debt-payment infrastructure for financial institutions.”

Cited by: Pathlight Ventures (formerly Exponent Founders Capital)

Total raised: About $5 million

What it does: Comulate automates insurance statement processing, reconciliation, revenue recovery, and forecasting.

Why it’s on the list: “Leveraging AI to drive real revenue lift for insurance carriers is driving success in a category” that’s historically been hard to break into, Charley Ma, a cofounder and managing partner of Pathlight Ventures, said.

Cited by: The Fintech Fund (investor)

Total raised: $3.5 million

What it does: Confido is a financial-planning and analysis tool for retail brands that processes payments, categorizes deductions, forecasts sales, and tracks spending in a single platform.

Why it’s on the list: For retail brands and consumer packaged-goods companies generating more than $50 million in sales, “it’s difficult to track revenue across all of your channels,” The Fintech Fund’s Nik Milanovic said, adding that retail companies typically hire CFOs and entire accounting teams to do simple tasks like reporting, booking refunds and returns, and cashflow forecasting.

“Confido does this automatically by pulling all of the information that consumer-facing product companies need into one place, and then generating automated reports with insights. They sync with all the accounting systems that brands are already using, which has helped them grow really quickly. The future product will include more financial options and tailored recommendations as well,” he said.

Cited by: Harlem Capital

Total raised: $24 million

What it does: Felix facilitates cross-border payments, focusing on remittances from US workers sending money to families and friends in Latin America.

Why it’s on the list: “Felix Pago has been impressive in how they’ve reached early success, especially in distribution which can be one of the most challenging areas for a startup to tackle,” Gabby Cazeau, a partner at Harlem Capital, said. “They built a chatbot on WhatsApp to reach users already in and from LatAm. This brings natural familiarity with the product and the potential for high virality with users.”

“Remittances are also a huge business, and traditional providers take large fees that cut into how much money people can send to each other,” she added. “Felix is built on the blockchain and uses stablecoins, which allows them to save on FX fees and which they can pass to users.”

Cited by: Homebrew (investor)

Total raised: $133 million

What it does: Finix offers businesses a payments-processing platform that lets them accept and manage payments.

Why it’s on the list: “The company is exciting because it has the best low code, no code solution for enterprises who don’t have vast technical resources but have complex payments needs,” Homebrew’s Satya Patel said. “It’s going after a massive segment of the market that has been poorly served by expensive and inflexible legacy solutions and underserved by API-only solutions.”

Cited by: Hustle Fund (investor)

Total raised: $135 million

What it does: Flex is a finance app for SMBs and middle-market companies.

Why it’s on the list: “Flex elegantly unifies banking, payments, and expense management for businesses. It is one of the financial institutions that have been aggressively expanding their lending operations,” Eric Bahn, the cofounder and a general partner at Hustle Fund, said.

Unlike competitors in this space, such as Brex and Ramp, “this team has raised far less capital, yet still has expanded into huge revenue quietly,” he said, declining to disclose the exact amount. “Flex is going to underwrite so many great startups and companies as their financial backend in the coming years.”

Cited by: Commerce Ventures (investor)

Total raised: $16 million

What it does: Forward manages payment authorization, settles transactions, moves money, and handles reconciliation for other companies.

Why it’s on the list: “We completed an extensive review of next-generation players enabling payment acceptance to be embedded successfully in software experiences (e.g., booking platforms, e-commerce enablers, team sports applications). From this analysis, we saw Forward as a standout player in terms of highly relevant team experience and an approach that would maximize the success of clients and a technology platform that supported this approach for clients at a wide variety of size and scale,” Dan Rosen, a general partner at Commerce Ventures, said.

“Brandon, Derek, and Danielle are veteran payments and commerce operators with a track record of building new platforms and bringing them to market directly and through large partnerships. We’re delighted to be able to work with them,” he said of the cofounders, Brandon Lloyd, Derek Victory, and Danielle Madison.

Cited by: CapitalG

Total raised: $78.7 million

What it does: GlossGenius offers payments and accounting software built for the beauty and wellness industry.

Why it’s on the list: “The company’s platform enables spas and salons of all sizes to offer an exceptional customer experience and drive efficiency in their operations, transforming many manual back-office processes into a seamless workflow. GlossGenius’ tech stands out from competition as a result of their deep understanding of what the industry needs, stemming from founder experience managing a makeup artistry business and living firsthand how underserved this market was from technology,” Kelly Barton, the vice president at CapitalG, said.

Here’s the pitch deck GlossGenius used to raise its Series A.

Cited by: Interplay

Total raised: $15.5 million

What it does: Hypercard is building a hybrid buisness and personal credit card issued by employers through the American Express network that also streamlines expense management.

Why it’s on the list: “Hypercard is run by a team of young, driven entrepreneurs that have set out to completely change the way employers manage and incentivize their employees. Already, in the very early innings of building this company, the team secured invaluable partnerships with industry leaders such as Amex and SAP Concur to create an industry-leading product,” Mark Peter Davis, a managing partner at Interplay, said.

Cited by: Inspired Capital (investor)

Total raised: $13 million

What it does: Kanmon helps software companies embed financial products for their clients.

Why it’s on the list: “As embedded fintech continues to scale, Kanmon is front and center in embedded lending, reimagining the future of how SMBs access capital. We’re super excited about the founding team who brings entire careers’ worth of credit experience from places like LendUp, Mission Lane, and Funding Circle,” Inspired Capital’s Alexa von Tobel said.

Cited by: Bain Capital Ventures

Total raised: $6.3 million

What it does: Materia AI helps accountants organize their data, enabling them to automate parts of their work.

Why it’s on the list: “With a decline in new auditors and an immense volume of manual data entry, professional-service audits are the perfect place for an AI copilot,” Alysaa Co, principal at Bain Capital Ventures, said. “LLMs enable the automation of work like ingesting large sets of unstructured financial data, searchability, comparing against historicals and across the industry, and direct citations for where the data comes from.”

Cited by: Avid Ventures, Index Ventures

Total raised: $7.85 million

What it does: Noetica helps deal professionals negotiate debit agreements with their data using an AI platform that benchmarks terms in corporate debt transactions.

Why it’s on the list: “Noetica is a capital-markets data company for corporate debt, a market valued at trillions of dollars. Its AI-powered software allows professionals to upload any credit or bond document and compare all terms to similar public and private deals,” Jahanvi Sardana, a partner at Index Ventures, said.

“Corporate debt terms are time-consuming and difficult to benchmark, leading deal professionals, such as lawyers and investment managers, to often miss higher-risk terms, as well as opportunities for negotiation. By building the largest proprietary dataset of corporate debt terms, Noetica is changing how these deals are negotiated and transacted,” Tali Miller, a founding investor at Avid Ventures, said.

Cited by: Two Sigma Ventures (investor)

Total raised: $4.3 million

What it does: Per Diem is building a mobile app for small- and medium-size businesses, offering software that handles payments and tracks loyalty rewards.

Why it’s on the list: “If Starbucks were a bank, its deposit amount would surpass that of 90% of the institutions under the US FDIC’s coverage. And with three in 10 orders made through their app, it’s become one of their most effective tools for increasing customer spend. Per Diem is bringing this success model to small- and medium-sized restaurants, bakeries, and coffee shops by making first-party apps with integrated payments, loyalty programs, and customer engagement tools,” Dan Abelon, a partner at Two Sigma Ventures, said. “As adoption grows, Per Diem aims to become a key player in SMB digital transformation, potentially processing a significant share of all transactions.”

Cited by: Two Sigma Ventures

Total raised: $26 million

What it does: Rogo is building a generative AI assistant to help investment bankers and analysts do their jobs more efficiently.

Why it’s on the list: “Rogo’s platform is purpose-built for the complex data needs of the financial sector, allowing nontechnical users to query vast amounts of financial data using natural language processing. This is a game changer for institutions like banks, investment firms, and insurers,” Frances Schwiep, a partner at Two Sigma Ventures, said.

“I see immense potential in Rogo’s ability to give first-of-its-kind access to critical financial analytics, positioning them as a key player in transforming how financial institutions interact with their data to drive more informed decisions across the industry,” she added.

See the pitch deck for Rogo’s $7 million seed.

Cited by: Fiat Ventures (investor)

Total raised: $4.8 million

What it does: Sunfish provides financial resources for families seeking fertility treatments.

Why it’s on the list: “The US market for fertility-clinic services was estimated at $7.9 billion in 2022 and is forecasted to reach $16.8 billion by the end of 2028. A recent study in lower-income countries found that a single cycle costs between 50% and 200% of people’s average annual income,” Fiat Ventures’ Fernandez said.

“By providing modern fintech solutions, not only does Sunfish provide access to fertility treatments that would otherwise be unavailable, but the company is also developing unique datasets and paving the way for more financial tools to be developed using ML/AI. And, as these families grow, Sunfish can continue supporting their growing financial needs,” he said.

Cited by: Index Ventures (investor)

Total raised: $44.7 million

What it does: Thatch helps people manage and pay for healthcare costs with a debit card, Health Savings Account, and on-demand access to billing experts.

Why it’s on the list: “Thatch is transforming the one-size-fits-all model of employer-sponsored health benefits into a more personalized one, where employees have the freedom to choose from a wide range of health plans that best suit their unique needs,” Index Ventures’ Jahanvi Sardana said.

“Thatch has abstracted all the complexity away, converting budget selection, enrollment, and insurance payments into a few clicks, making it seamless for both employers and employees,” she added.

Cited by: Theory Ventures

Total raised: $4.8 million

What it does: Tristero is building a decentralized exchange where users trade assets anonymously on the blockchain without intermediaries.

Why it’s on the list: “Tristero is using cryptography to replace trust with code. The team’s core focus is building better liquidity infrastructure in crypto. Tristero is building a future where you control who can and can’t see your order data or access your funds.” Theory Ventures’ Tomasz Tunguz said.

Cited by: TTV Capital (investor)

Total raised: $7 million

What it does: When uses an AI assistant to help exiting employees maintain access to healthcare by providing affordable alternatives to COBRA and making it easy to compare pricing and deductibles.

Why it’s on the list: “There are more than 700,000 companies in the United States with 20-plus employees, which means they are required by law to offer COBRA. Last year’s 721,677 planned job cuts brought some of the largest reductions in company head count that we’ve seen in the past two decades,” TTV Capital’s Lizzie Guynn said.

“Offering an alternative to expensive, inflexible COBRA not only makes common sense but also economic sense. COBRA participants are three times more costly than active employees, which is especially burdensome for self-insured companies. To date, companies that offer When’s fixed-dollar health-insurance premium reimbursement have seen an 80% conversion rate from COBRA. Employees that applied their When benefit to available plans have saved as much as 50% in out-of-pocket healthcare costs,” Guynn said.