Why European fintech is a top target for venture capital in 2019

Forbes magazine has presented the “European Midas List.” This list is a ranking of the most successful investors in Europe.

This year the list was headed by a partner of the venture capital firm Index Ventures, whose success was brought by investments in fintech startups.

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European investors are targeting fintech

Forty-three-year-old Jan Hammer has been in the first place in the rating for the second year in a row.

Hammer has successfully invested in the insurance startup Alan and bank aggregator Capitolis. Both of them have received substantial investments this year.

Alan closed the investment round in February, during which the company attracted about $44 million. Two weeks ago, with the help of Spark Capital and SVB Capital, the startup received $40 million.

In addition, Hammer has also invested in TransferWise, which now costs $3.5 billion. At the very beginning, he supported the brokerage service Robinhood. Robinhood is a startup currently estimated at $7.6 billion.

The best financial companies on the “Midas List“

According to the non-profit organization Innovate Finance, the United States remains the largest financial market in the world.

In the first eight months of 2019, American startups received almost $9.4 billion from investors.

Despite this, the European market is steadily growing. For example, London has already outstripped New York in terms of the volume of funds raised for financing fintech companies – $2.1 billion compared to $1.93 billion.

Financial start-ups in the Forbes list

Forbes named the companies that have become growth drivers for the European venture capital market this year. It should be noted that among them there are also a number of fintech startups, which proves the prospects of this sector.

One of the highlights was the startup Stripe, which is the most high-valued fintech unicorn and one of the most high-valued startups in general.

In September, the startup attracted $250 million from investors and raised its valuation to $35 billion.

Stripe was founded in 2010 by brothers Patrick and John Collison. The company is providing customers with a dedicated API that allows e-commerce companies to integrate the service into their websites or applications.

Its clients include Airbnb, Uber, and Amazon. In 2019, four Midas List members invested in a startup.

The start-up that handles payments for online retailers

The Dutch startup Adyen was also on the list. The company handles payments for online retailers. The startup’s services are used by more than 3,500 customers, including Facebook, Uber, Alipay, and others.

The company gained a reputation as an industry leader after a successful IPO, during which Adyen raised $1.1 billion. This summer, the creators of the platform, CEO Peter van der Dawes and CTO Arnaud Shuiff, decided to sell 15% of their shares in the company.

Their total value amounted to about $352 million. The reason for the sale was the diversification of portfolios. Jan Hammer was amid the investors who bet their money on the company.

A representative of the Latin American fintech market, the Nubank, also made it to the top of the list. DST Global and, in particular, Thomas Stafford invested $10.4 billion in this Brazilian startup.

In October, Nubank’s CEO David Velez said that 15 million customers use the services of his companies. It should be noted that in July the number of clients was 20% less.

Founded in 2013, Nubank has already attracted more than $1 billion in venture capital investments. Over the past year, it has increased its value by $6 billion.

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(Featured image by StartupStockPhotos via Pixabay)

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