More statistics and interesting numbers can be found on our page Fintech Landscape.
With autumn around the corner and the financials from 2019 finally out, it is the time of the year to deep dive into how Finnish fintech companies performed in 2019. When doing the Helsinki Fintech Guide we realized that over 50% of Finnish fintech companies have been established in 2012 or later, so to give more insight into companies that are now mid-sized, we have updated our comparison to include scaleups as a separate section. Our listing relies on official financial statements, which are public information in Finland. Some companies such as AlphaSense are not included, as their overseas revenues are not public knowledge. Therefore, the picture presented here gives the best overview we can give, with the data available. We will keep revisiting the figures, if and when we receive further data.
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. It should be noted that the startups represent various different specialties, 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
Our 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, we understand that the figures we will report next year are going to reflect the peculiarities of this year and unfortunately, we 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.
*Revenues include salaries paid through its platform
Fintech Farm
Fintech Farm is a financial technology hub and a digital finance service company connecting banks and fintech companies. Fintech Farm provides innovation, consulting, acceleration, matchmaking, and training services for the financial industry. Fintech Farm is a part of HUB13 Ltd. and has built a vibrant community of 100 financial industry organizations within the last 4 years.
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Fintech FarmBase
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