For all the pitch decks, demo days, and “warm intros”, it’s easy to forget one thing:

You don’t have to raise venture capital to build a fintech company.

Yes, it’s harder. Yes, you’ll grow slower, at least at first. But some of the most resilient fintechs out there never took VC money. Or if they did, they waited until they had customers, revenue, and actual leverage.

Let’s look at what that world looks like, and why it might actually be smarter in the long run.

Five fintechs that did it their way

Clear Junction (London, UK)

Clear Junction is a London-based cross-border payments fintech founded in 2017 by Dima Kats. From day one it was bootstrapped; Kats funded it with his own savings and consulting revenue rather than VC. In five years the company reached about €35 million in annual revenue (projected to triple soon), serving hundreds of banks and payment firms.

This organic growth earned Clear Junction a spot on the FT 1000 list of Europe’s fastest-growing companies (≈140.5% growth from 2019 to 2022). Throughout this period Kats repeatedly emphasized that raising venture money would dilute focus; the startup built its infrastructure and client base entirely on founder capital and fees.

🌐 https://clearjunction.com

Hypofriend (Berlin, Germany)

Hypofriend is a German online mortgage platform launched in 2017 by brothers Nick and Chris Mulder (with Pavel Jurasek) to match homebuyers with loan options.

The founders deliberately rejected VC funding. Chris Mulder even lent the company funds in its first year instead of seeking outside capital. By 2020 Hypofriend had broken even and reinvested all profits into product development. Its revenue doubled to €6.6 million by 2021 (from €3.3 m in 2020) as the team grew to ~70 people. Co-founder Nick Mulder stressed that they had “no interest in raising venture capital” and preferred sustainable growth on their own terms.

Hypofriend’s breakeven operations and 100%+ year-on-year growth without any VC backing make it a standout bootstrapped story.

🌐 https://hypofriend.de/en

Capital on Tap (UK & USA)

Capital on Tap (CoT) is a business credit-card fintech founded in 2012 by David Luck in London, now also with a U.S. arm. It provides corporate credit cards and spending management for small companies. Unusually for a fintech at scale, CoT never raised VC equity rounds; its early capital came from three angel investors and debt facilities for customer lending.

The firm took on credit lines (not equity) to fund loans and was profitable from 2017 onward. By 2022 CoT had issued cards to over 200,000 businesses, with more than $5 billion charged on those cards. Growth was impressive, around 62% annual sales growth over 2019 to 2022, and profits of ~£25 m in 2021. Capital on Tap quietly scaled into the U.S. under the same bootstrapped model, partnering with banks like WebBank. As of 2023 it remains debt-financed and owner-controlled, with no VC dilution.

🌐 https://www.capitalontap.com/en

interface.ai (San Francisco, USA)

interface.ai is a U.S. fintech offering AI-driven virtual agents and chatbots to banks and credit unions. It was founded in 2019 by Srinivas Njay and Bruce Kim.

The company was bootstrapped from inception; the founders invested about $1 M of their own capital and built the product without outside funding. This paid off. By 2024 interface.ai was reporting “several tens of millions” in annual revenue and had about 100 institutional customers. Forbes even called it “the most successful bootstrapped fintech startup”.

Only after proving the model did interface.ai take outside money, closing a $30 M round in late 2024. But its entire early growth came from founder capital and customer revenue.

🌐 https://interface.ai/

Inpay (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Inpay is a Danish cross-border payments network founded in 2007 by entrepreneur Jacob Thomsen. It connects banks and postal operators to enable fast, low-cost international transfers, especially to underserved regions. Inpay has grown entirely without external financing; Tracxn lists it as an “unfunded” company. Despite that, its growth has been spectacular.

Inpay was named the fastest-growing company in Denmark by the FT 1000 (1299% revenue growth from 2017 to 2020). By 2023 it reported about €60 million in annual revenue and is expanding globally, especially via postal bank partnerships. The company was built on joint ventures and reinvested profits; no VC dilution, no outside equity.

🌐 https://www.inpay.com/

Key takeaways for fintech startups

Here’s what these five companies prove.

• You can build a fintech from scratch using customer revenue, not investor capital.
  
  
• Bank partnerships, crowdfunding, and angel debt are all viable alternatives to VC.
  
  
• Profitability and control often go hand-in-hand when you bootstrap.
  
  
• Some of these companies reached 7–9 figure revenues without raising a cent.
  
  
• VC money isn’t evil, but it’s optional, not mandatory.

Curious whether your fintech could scale without giving up equity?

Get in touch with Your Fintech Story; we help founders grow on their terms.

Fintech founders: the right metrics can make or break you. In 2025, growth and retention aren’t just buzzwords – they’re survival. Track what matters and skip the vanity stuff. Investors look for clear signs of traction and stability, so focus on data-driven metrics that show real progress and health.

Growth metrics

Growth is (almost) everything for a startup, especially in fintech. Keep one eye on user growth – think monthly active users (MAU) or daily active users – and on revenue growth. In practice, track the number of new sign-ups or users per month and your revenue each quarter. Calculate revenue growth rate as (current – previous) ÷ previous × 100% to see if sales are really climbing. And don’t ignore Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) – how much you spend to win one customer. A high CAC can crush your ROI, so push to lower it over time.

Avoid getting fooled by vanity metrics. Big sign-up numbers feel good but mean little if costs are exploding. Compare user growth to spend (CAC) and revenue growth to ensure you’re building something real, not chasing vanity.

Retention metrics

Growth is only half the story – the other half is keeping users. Track churn rate and engagement. Churn rate (percentage of customers who leave in a period) should stay as low as possible. Also watch DAU/MAU as engagement indicators. If daily and monthly active users climb, people are sticking around and using your platform.

And don’t forget Lifetime Value (LTV). This tells you how much revenue a typical customer will bring in before they leave. A healthy rule of thumb: aim for LTV at least 3× your CAC. In other words, if you spend $100 to acquire a customer, that user should ultimately generate about $300 or more in profit.

Unit economics

Metrics like gross margin and LTV:CAC embody your unit economics – basically, are you making money on each user? Gross margin is the simplest: (revenue – direct costs) ÷ revenue. Fintech SaaS businesses often enjoy high gross margins. A high margin gives you cash to cover support, R&D, etc. If your margin is too low, it’s a red flag.

Equally, watch your CAC to LTV ratio. A good target is LTV ≈ 3× CAC. If CAC creeps up or margins dip, you may still grow but at the cost of sustainability. In short: high gross margin plus a healthy LTV:CAC ratio means you’re building a solid business.

Regulatory and compliance metrics

Fintech is hyper-regulated, so compliance KPIs matter. Every fintech should track a “Regulatory/Compliance Exceptions Ratio” or similar. Practically, this could be a stat like the percentage of transactions that trigger a KYC/AML flag.

Why fuss? Because regulators can shut you down overnight if you slip. Use metrics like number of audit findings, percentage of resolved issues, or flagged KYC cases. Track the count of red-flag transactions, average time to resolve them, and percent of staff trained on compliance.

Operational efficiency

Metrics on spending and operations keep your startup alive. Burn rate (cash spent per month) is critical – it tells you how fast you’re draining the bank account.

From burn you get runway – how many months of life remain at the current spending pace. Simple formula: runway = cash reserves ÷ monthly burn. Aim for at least 12–18 months of runway.

Finally, watch support costs. Calculate cost per support ticket by dividing total support expenses by number of tickets in a period. This helps you keep operational costs under control while scaling.

Key takeaways for fintech startups

Here’s what fintech founders can learn from this:

• Focus on true growth: Track active users (DAU/MAU) and revenue growth, not just sign-ups or likes.
  
  
• Mind CAC and LTV: Keep CAC low and ensure LTV is ≥3× CAC.
  
  
• Prioritize retention: Lower churn through great product/experience.
  
  
• Optimize unit economics: Aim for high gross margins and healthy LTV:CAC.
  
  
• Stay compliant: Measure and reduce compliance issues before they become real problems.
  
  
• Manage cash wisely: Know your burn and runway.
  
  
• Control support costs: Use automation and self-help to keep cost per ticket low.

Let’s talk

Have questions or need support with your fintech metrics? Reach out to us. We help founders decode their data, set smart KPIs, and grow sustainably. Let’s turn your numbers into a success story.

Fintech startup founders will remember the glory days of 2021 when unicorn fever was at its height. Back then, sky-high valuations and cheap capital created dozens of $1B+ fintech companies almost overnight. But two years later, the macro grind has set in. Interest rates are up, VC funding is down, and investors are demanding profitability over growth. So: are fintech unicorns still being born? The data shows that while new unicorn births have slowed dramatically from the 2021 peak, the total count of fintech unicorns keeps creeping up, albeit at a much gentler pace. Let’s unpack the numbers, trends and what they mean for founders.

The Fintech Unicorn Boom (and Bust)

Fintech went through a hypergrowth phase in the late 2010s. VC funding jumped from about $19B in 2015 to over $92B by 2021 as the pandemic accelerated digital finance. 2021 was a banner year: approximately 166 new fintech unicorns were born that year, a record high. By mid-2023, there were “more than 272 fintech unicorns” worldwide, with a combined valuation around $936 billion. In other words, fintech unicorns grew roughly sevenfold in half a decade. Established players like Stripe, Adyen, Coinbase and Robinhood saw stratospheric valuations, and dozens of younger startups (in payments, lending, crypto infrastructure, etc.) hit that magic $1 b threshold.

But then reality bit. In 2022 a market correction arrived. Rising inflation, higher interest rates, the war in Ukraine and crypto crashes all spooked investors. Fintech funding fell about 46% in 2022 (to $75.2B) versus 2021, and new unicorn creation slowed. The number of new fintech unicorns plummeted from 166 in 2021 to just 69 in 2022. Public markets were brutal too, fintech IPOs dropped from 82 in 2021 to 23 in 2022. Fintech Labs notes that many valuations got “reset” during this period and some companies that hit $1B before had to take down-rounds. As one industry insider put it, the “free money” era was over and “the fluff has come out of the market”.

2023–2025: What’s the Status Now?

Fast-forward to 2024–25 and unicorn counts are still growing, but at a much slower clip. According to FintechLabs (which tracks 21st-century fintech unicorns), the global tally was about 329 fintech unicorns at the start of 2023, rising to 350 by year-end 2023. As of March 2025, that total is around 381 fintech unicorns worldwide. In other words, unicorns are still being born, but adding only a few dozen net each year now; versus the 100+ per year of 2018–21. For example, during all of 2023 the list grew by about 21 new fintech unicorns, and early data for 2024 suggests another small batch (Crunchbase found about 12 new fintech unicorns in 2024). In short, the growth curve has flattened.

At the same time, overall fintech dealmaking remains down. The World Economic Forum reports that fintech VC funding, which peaked around $92B in 2021, plunged to roughly $30B in 2023. Part of that is simply normalization, 2021 was an outlier. But it reflects how higher rates and uncertainty have made VCs more cautious. The upshot for fintech: unicorn status still matters, but it’s no longer a given. Investors now reward sustainable metrics (unit economics, margins) over pure scale.

Table 1. Fintech unicorn count and growth by year (selected).

Year	New fintech unicorns (global)	Total fintech unicorns (year-end)
2021	166	~278
2022	69	329
2023	21	350
2024	~12	~370

So fewer fintech unicorns have been minted in 2023–24 than in the boom years, but the cumulative total is still climbing. The investor takeaway: unicorn creation is alive, but won’t skyrocket until the broader VC feast returns.

Who’s Leading in 2025?

The geography of fintech unicorns is still concentrated. By region, the United States dominates (over 50% of fintech unicorns are U.S.-based). Europe accounts for roughly one-fifth and Asia (mainly China and India) about 15–20%. For example, among the largest fintech unicorns are U.S. and European names: Shopify (Canada, $136B) and Stripe (USA, $115B) top the list, followed by Ant Group (China, $79B) and PayPal (USA, $70B). Other giants include Adyen (NL, $61B) and Nubank (Brazil, $58B).

Countries like the UK, Germany, India and Brazil remain hotbeds: London- and Berlin-headquartered firms (Revolut, Wise, N26, Checkout.com) continue to attract investor attention, even if some have trimmed valuations. Notably, new markets are emerging. Fintech unicorns are sprouting in Latin America (like U.S.-listed dLocal, Uruguay’s $2.9B payments platform) and Africa. In fact, Africa just added unicorns in late 2024, Nigeria’s Moniepoint and South Africa’s TymeBank both raised funds at valuations over $1B. These firms blend digital banking with brick-and-mortar touchpoints to serve largely unbanked populations, showing fintech innovation is globalizing.

In short, fintech unicorns still cluster in the U.S. and China, with strong contributions from Europe; but we’re seeing notable new players in emerging regions.

Examples of Recent Fintech Unicorns

• Moniepoint (Nigeria) – A payments and lending platform that became a unicorn in late 2024 as it expanded beyond small-business clients.
  
  
• TymeBank (South Africa/Philippines) – A digital bank focusing on low-cost accounts. It joined the unicorn club in 2024 by mixing online and physical services.
  
  
• Plaid (USA) – An open banking API startup. In early 2025 it raised a round valuing it at $6.1B, about half its 2021 peak, reflecting the valuation reset in fintech.
  
  
• Ripple (USA) – A blockchain payment company (not a “crypto exchange” exactly) that continues to hover around $18B after a secondary in March 2025.
  
  
• Chime (USA) – A neo-bank that has stayed private; in 2024 it was valued around $12B as competition with incumbent banks heats up.
  
  
• Checkout.com (UK) – A payments processor valued at $11B in its last funding (2022), still among Europe’s top fintech names.
  
  
• DLocal (Uruguay) – A cross-border payments firm that IPO’d at about $16B valuation (now ~$2.9B market cap), showing emerging markets fintech can hit it big.

These examples show a mix of consumer banking, payments, and crypto-related fintechs. However, most new unicorns today solve real enterprise or underbanking problems, not gimmicks.

Investor and Market Trends

The shift in investor behavior is stark. Venture funding is no longer indiscriminate. Institutional VCs are prioritizing solid unit economics and profitability; flashy user-growth stories without clear monetization get less love. As McKinsey noted, fintechs have entered “a new era of value creation” where they “must run at a slower and steadier pace”.

Key indicators: global fintech VC fell from $92B in 2021 to about $30B in 2023. Mega-rounds (and mega-valuations) have dried up; deal sizes shrank by ~40% in 2022. Nonetheless, fintech adoption remains robust. McKinsey estimates fintech revenues growing ~15% per year (vs ~6% for legacy banks) through 2028. In other words, the opportunity is still there, but investors want evidence you can capture it sustainably.

Exit routes have changed too. After the SPAC/IPO boom of 2021, fintech IPOs almost vanished (72% drop in 2022). Many unicorns are holding on as private companies or exploring acquisitions. For example, fintech merger-acquisition activity is gradually rebounding, especially in fintech-adjacent sectors like insurtech. Founders should note: exits may be through trade sales or modest public offerings rather than glittering IPO debuts for now.

Key Takeaways for Fintech Startups

• Prioritize fundamentals over hype. In today’s market, investors reward clear unit economics and path to profitability. Chasing a super-high valuation (“unicorn status”) without real growth can backfire. Focus on sustainable business models and show steady progress.
  
  
• Niche and go global. Consider underserved markets or verticals. Many recent fintech unicorns (Moniepoint, TymeBank, etc.) succeeded by tackling gaps in emerging markets. Even in developed markets, vertical specialization (e.g. fintech for healthcare, B2B payments, regulatory tech) can set you apart from bigger incumbents.
  
  
• Stretch your runway. With VC caution high, be prepared for longer fundraises or smaller rounds. Keep burn rates in check and extend your runway through revenue or strategic partnerships. This lean approach can give you negotiating leverage later.
  
  
• Embrace technology trends. AI, blockchain, open banking and cloud continue to open doors in fintech. We saw, for example, that AI startups led recent unicorn lists across industries. Apply such innovation to fintech challenges – e.g. AI-driven fraud detection or personalized banking – to stay attractive to investors and customers alike.
  
  
• Think exit strategies early. M&A may be a more realistic exit path than IPO for many. Build relationships with potential acquirers and demonstrate how your tech could plug into larger platforms. Even without a public exit, a healthy exit market keeps valuations supported.
  
  
• Stay customer-obsessed. At the end of the day, even a unicorn needs loyal customers. Invest in user experience and trust-building (security, compliance, UX), especially in fintech where failures can be costly. Companies that solve actual pain points (and communicate that clearly) will attract both customers and investors, unicorn or not.

The bottom line: Unicorns aren’t dead, but they’re harder to find. Fintech valuations have normalized, but the sector continues innovating rapidly. Founders who adapt to the disciplined funding climate, focus on delivering customer value, and remain vigilant about market shifts will be the ones writing the next big success stories, even if those successes aren’t covered in headlines.

Ready to grow your fintech? Whether you want to refine your strategy, tell your story to investors, or navigate this evolving market, we can help. Contact us.