The future of banking is being pushed by alternate financial startups, which operate outside of the typical banking infrastructure. Chime, which offers a debit, credit and savings account, aims to do this through a commitment to fee-free mobile banking. In the US, several technology companies are building financial platforms which do away with customer fees. Robinhood pioneered zero-commission stock trading and both Venmo and Square’s Cash App have made sending money to friends easy. Alongs...| Business of Apps
NuBank is the largest neobank in the world, with over 90 million customers in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. Built as an alternative bank without the extortionate fees Brazilian’s regularly faced, NuBank quickly drew a large community of unbanked customers. Co-founder David Vélez had worked as a partner at Sequoia Capital and co-founder Cristina Junqueira was previously employed by the largest bank in Brazil. In the first few years, NuBank struggled to meet the demand, with a waiting list of...| Business of Apps
Starling Bank is one of the three main “challenger banks” in the U.K., which have made inroads into the banking ecosystem with fee-free services, no physical branches and alternative features. In comparison to Revolut and Monzo, Starling Bank has marketed itself as a proper banking institution, albeit without any physical branches. It has been named Britain’s Best Bank at the British Banking Awards four years in a row. Originally launched in 2014, Starling was the first of the three mai...| Business of Apps
N26 is one of a several neobanks that launched in the mid-2010s, which were aimed at breaking up the monotony of banking with well zero-fee services and well designed mobile apps. Founded in Munich as one of the many startups incubated by Rocket Internet, N26 originally operated as the frontend interface which was backed by Wirecard. In 2016, it received a banking license from the financial regulator in Germany to operate on its own. Since becoming a bank, N26 has added other services, such a...| Business of Apps
This in-depth report delivers a complete overview of the finance app market, highlighting detailed charts on market trends, performance metrics, market share, engagement rates, and benchmarking comparisons. It offers valuable insights into the growth and changing dynamics of the finance sector. What is the market size of the payments app industry? The mobile payments industry generated over $20 billion revenue in 2023, a 13.6% increase on the previous year. The vast majority of revenue in thi...| Business of Apps
Before Robinhood, anyone who wanted to invest in stocks would be charged between $5 to $10 a trade. They also needed to invest a minimum of $500 to open an account. Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt (co-founders) had previous experience building these systems and saw the extraneous costs as little more than gatekeeping people out of investing. “We are not setting any account minimums, which we think unlocks a market of investors who couldn’t do this before,” said Bhatt to CNBC at launch. ...| Business of Apps
The finance app industry is a multi-sector behemoth with thousands of businesses new and old trying to make financial processes easier on mobile. In the past decade, we have seen in the introduction of payments through near-field communication, commission-free stock trading, the birth of cryptocurrency and buy now, pay later apps. On top of that, many of the old financial institutions have integrated their systems onto mobile. Almost every bank has a mobile app nowadays, and has implemented n...| Business of Apps
Cryptocurrency has been in development since the 1980s, but the launch of Bitcoin in 2009 by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto was the first bit-currency to catch on outside of academic circles. At its core, cryptocurrency is a decentralised digital currency, which is usually backed by a public ledger (blockchain) to verify transfers, mint new coins and secure individual coin ownership records. For the first few years, Bitcoin enthusiasts mined the currency and tried to get it accepted ...| Business of Apps
Coinbase has led the way for cryptocurrency since its inception in 2012, as the largest exchange in the United States by volume. While known primarily as an exchange and storage service for Bitcoin, Coinbase also offers a wide range of other crypto and fiat currency exchanges. In a time before Bitcoin ballooned in value, Coinbase integrated its payment processing capabilities into Stripe, Braintree and PayPal, alongside merchant partnerships with Dell, Expedia and Time Inc. 2017 was seen as a...| Business of Apps
Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, responsible for several trillion dollar crypto volume every year. It was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, who previously worked for Blockchain.info and as CTO of OKCoin. Launched in Hong Kong, it quickly became one of the leading exchanges, but from the get-go faced increasingly restrictive regulations which forced it to migrate servers and headquarters to Malta. Binance has one of the widest selections of alt-coins available on ...| Business of Apps
Mobile payments apps are used by more than two billion people globally, with millions more coming online each year. In India, South-east Asia and South America, some of the younger generation skipped the usual process of owning a credit or debit card, in favour of using mobile apps. Adoption of mobile payments is weakest in developed nations, such as Germany and France, which are finding it hard to ditch cash and cards. Even in the United States, adoption rates trail developing nations by a c...| Business of Apps