Fintech
The 50 Hottest Fintech Startups In 2026
ByJeff Kauflin,
Senior Editor
Even as AI took center stage in 2025, many fintechs–especially those with a business-to-business focus–thrived.
2026 Will Be The Year Banks Stop Waiting
ByPam Kaur,
Former Contributor
Why Deposit Stickiness, Not Scale, Is Driving Bank M&A Premiums
ByPam Kaur,
Former Contributor
What Fintech Can Learn From Neopets’ Mini Economy
ByPam Kaur,
Former Contributor
More From Fintech
How SoFi Went From Fintech Darling To Wall Street Pariah
Former investment banker Anthony Noto built SoFi into a lending juggernaut, helping to push its valuation to nearly $40 billion. Now Wall Street is doubting its impressive results and its business model.
ByJeff Kauflin,
Senior Editor
Freedom: The Rise Of The LLM-Agnostic, Token-Efficient Agentic System
Companies once measured AI by tokens burned. The real metric is whether your workflows survive when one lab pulls the model out from under you. Freedom from the Frontier.
ByDon Muir,
Contributor
Asia’s Cross-Border Payments Will Near $24 Trillion By 2032. The Rails Are Not Ready
Asia-Pacific cross-border payment flows are projected to near $24 trillion by 2032, while the correspondent-banking rails that settle them keep shrinking.
Contributor
The Real Bet Inside The Largest IPO In History
SpaceX's valuation only makes sense if you accept a certain argument about the future, which is that the space economy is on the cusp of an order-of-magnitude expansion.
ByNigel Morris,
Contributor
Agentic Commerce Is Reshaping Competition Among Payment Providers
65% of merchants strongly agree that they are considering adding a new payment partner to better support their business as agentic commerce emerges.
ByJordan McKee,
Contributor
Thailand’s Virtual Banks Launch Into A Model That Barely Pays
Thailand approved three virtual banks to launch by mid-2026. Regional data is unforgiving: of eight profitable Indonesian digital banks in 2025, only SeaBank earns bank-like returns.
Contributor
The Philippines Went Majority Digital Without A Super App Or A CBDC
The Philippines shows how shared rails, real‑time transfers and a single QR standard can digitize payments at scale without a super app or a central bank digital currency.
Contributor
Revolut Wants To Issue Its Own Stablecoin. So Will Every Other Neobank.
The FCA picked Revolut for its stablecoin sandbox to test a GBP-pegged coin. With PYUSD at $3.95B and Visa settling $7B in stablecoins, neobanks are chasing the settlement layer.
Contributor
Every Technology Wave Builds A Trust Layer. AI Is Building Its Now.
A new verification layer is emerging, and I think it’s the most important venture category nobody is talking about yet.
ByAlex Lazarow,
Senior Contributor
How Cross-Border Payments is Changing Its Approach To AI
Most of the biggest cross-border payment companies in the world are already actively leveraging AI to improve efficiencies across their entire operations.
Contributor
Class Action Claims Administrator Agrees To Stop Taking Vendor Rebates After Kickback Scrutiny
Amid criticism that claims administrators have secretly profited from class action payouts, Philadelphia-based Angeion agreed not to accept rebates from prepaid card issuers, banks or other vendors in a Kansas City data breach case.
ByJeff Kauflin,
Senior Editor
Are We On The Precipice Of A Fintech IPO Bonanza?
After a years-long ice age, the fintech IPO window has reopened. The question worth asking is whether this is a sustained revival or a brief and fragile thaw.
ByNigel Morris,
Contributor
Why Payments Are Becoming A Revenue Lever For Merchants
Merchants have long treated payments as a back-end detail. Those building payment flexibility into their core architecture are converting more and losing fewer sales.
ByNandan Sheth,
Contributor
Kay Koplovitz’s Springboard Enterprises Bets On Women-Led Fintech
Springboard Enterprises is building its first fintech accelerator, betting that women-led startups are one of the market’s most underpriced growth opportunities.
Contributor
Rohit Chopra Takes Over California’s New Consumer Protection Agency
Former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra will lead California's new consumer protection agency. Here's what fintech companies need to know about the enforcement implications.
ByAJ Dhaliwal,
Contributor
AI ROI In Banking Remains Elusive. Here’s Why
AI won't transform banking by replacing old workflows. Find out why ROI remains elusive and the 3 shifts that change everything for financial leaders
Contributor
Why Stablecoin Yield Has Become Washington’s Newest Crypto Battleground
Banks and crypto firms are clashing over whether stablecoins can pay yield, as Congress and the OCC move toward a framework that separates holding from use.
ByAJ Dhaliwal,
Contributor