Mergims, a Rwandan FinTech Startup has been nominated among the top rising starts in the world.
The ranking, conducted by a UK firm under its “Pathfinder Ranking edition of 2016/2017.
Seventy startup companies took part in the rankings through a questionnaire providing detailed and prompt responses to Financial IT’s expert panel.
The panel was able to assess providers and their unique solutions and do a great research for the FinTech community.
“Over time, we hope that the Financial IT 2016/2017 Pathfinder Ranking will be revised and extended, so that it is seen as a crucial work of reference for the industry,” the report says.
For now, though, “we have ranked the 70 companies nominated on the basis of the average score for four main criteria and the quantity of funds raised.”
“We have recognized 50 most promising fintech startups from the list and named them TOP 50,” the report says.
Those companies that didn’t receive the high scores and remained below the line were nominated as Rising Stars, and Mergims is 4th on this list.
MERGIMS is a B2B2C platform operating as ”Cash to Service/Goods” business model, that offers a cheap yet convenient and secure payment platform in Africa.
Mobile banking and payments appears to be the main focus of the numerous (mainly small) FinTech companies that have raised funds – from a surprisingly diverse variety of backers – over the last three years, the report says.
Key Takeaways
Most of the nominated Pathfinders are relatively small companies, with only 10 of the 70 having raised more than US$10m. Most have no more than a few dozen employees and associates.
Funding sources are varied. Although the Pathfinders come from a variety of countries, a disproportionately large number are based in the United States or the UK.
It is not helpful to be categoric about the main area of interest of each of the Pathfinders. This is because there is often an overlap between the major elements of FinTech as Financial IT would see them. Blockchain often plays a key role in security or KYC solutions: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often a key element of mobile banking solutions, and so on.
Nevertheless, about one fifth of the Pathfinders have indicated that mobile banking and payments are their most important areas of focus.
About one seventh of the Pathfinders have indicated that AI is their most important area.
Similar numbers are focusing primarily on each of block chain, data management or core banking and investment/wealth management technology.
Smaller numbers of the Pathfinders are focusing mainly on (micro)-lending, KYC/ security and other areas.
“Once again we congratulate the Top 50 most promising startups in the ranking and thank the rest 20 companies for being nominated. Next year could be more successful for our Rising Stars,” organisers said in an email.
Top 50 Most Promising Startups
1 TOP50 Atom Bank
2 TOP50 Nubank
3 TOP50 Lemonade
4 TOP50 Monzo
5 TOP50 Beam Wallet
6 TOP50 SETL
7 TOP50 NYMBUS, Inc
8 TOP50 Token
9 TOP50 Yoyo Wallet
10 TOP50 Grow Financial Inc.
11 TOP50 Point
12 TOP50 ComplyAdvantage
13 TOP50 Data Republic
14 TOP50 Smartkarma
15 TOP50 Elliptic
16 TOP50 Mesitis Pte Ltd
17 TOP50 Trunomi
18 TOP50 Prive Services Limited
19 TOP50 Beehive
20 TOP50 Ovamba Solutions (“Ovamba”)
21 TOP50 Qumram
22 TOP50 Coinify ApS
23 TOP50 B-Secur
24 TOP50 PensionBee
25 TOP50 Quantstore
26 TOP50 Pushfor
27 TOP50 ThisIsMe
28 TOP50 Earny
29 TOP50 Twisto
30 TOP50 Qonto (Olinda SAS)
31 TOP50 Valoot
32 TOP50 Veridu
33 TOP50 Splittable
34 TOP50 Equitise
35 TOP50 Thinknum
36 TOP50 Plutus.it
37 TOP50 Cendit
38 TOP50 Finimize
39 TOP50 Spotcap Global Services
40 TOP50 Bambu
41 TOP50 KyoLAB Limited
42 TOP50 Enterprise bot
43 TOP50 BlockEx
44 TOP50 bunq
45 TOP50 Ways2Wealth
46 TOP50 Configo
47 TOP50 SecurionPay
48 TOP50 BankEx
49 TOP50 Smartly Pte Ltd
50 TOP50 Everledger
Rising Starts
Rising Star Market EarlyBird
Rising Star Abra
Rising Star Cashaa
Rising Star mergims.com
Rising Star Notakey
Rising Star Trriple
Rising Star Veridate Financial
Rising Star Bridg
Rising Star Credntia
Rising Star SDK.finance
Rising Star Cobalt DL
Rising Star PAYMAGNET.com
Rising Star Metamako
Rising Star Yoti
Rising Star Bluzelle
Rising Star Wala
Rising Star BlockApps, Inc
Rising Star baningo GmbH
Rising Star Card Switch
Rising Star MONI Ltd.
