India ranks third among countries with most fintech unicorns in 2023; US retains the crown globally: Report

India has ranked third among the countries with the most financial technology (fintech) unicorns in the world in 2023, with the US and the UK retaining the top two positions globally. While the US is home to 134 unicorns and produces the most value in terms of fintech, the UK ranked second with 27 fintech unicorns and India ranked third with 17 fintech unicorns in 2023 so far.

According to global research firm Statista, the US is also home to the world's largest fintech companies by market capitalization, with fintech majors Visa, PayPal and Mastercard dominating the global ecosystem. Of the top 15 fintech companies worldwide, eight are from the United States.

The combined value of these eight companies - which includes Visa (USD 465.13 billion) and MasterCard (USD 344.57 billion) - comes in at USD 1.2 trillionn. China came second, despite being home to only eight unicorns. These include giants like Tencent (USD 187.92 billion) and Ant Financial (USD 151 billion), taking the total value of the country's financial market to USD 338.92 billion.

Silicon Valley is a natural home for this sector given its history of producing some of the world's largest technology companies, such as Meta, Apple, Google, and Amazon, and a well-established venture capital ecosystem with players like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.

The most profitable companies in India include stock broking platform Zerodha, fintech company Billdesk, UPI giant Paytm, etc. Fintech giants like Zerodha, Razorpay, Pine Labs, Paytm, and Billdesk, among others, have made profits.

Paytm reported consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 2,519 crore in the second quarter of fiscal year 2023-24 (Q2FY24), marking a growth of 32 percent as compared to Rs 1,914 crore reported in the same period last year.

The fintech major posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 292 crore during the quarter under review, which is 49 percent lower than the loss of Rs 572 crore reported in the corresponding period of FY23.

In the UK, some of the biggest startups include online banking service Revolut (USD 33 billion), cryptocurrency wallet provider Blockchain.com (USD 14 billion), digital payments group Checkout.com (USD 11 billion), and Rapyd (USD 8.75 billion), and SumUp. (USD 8.5 billion), according to Statista.

In the UK, startups such as Monzo and Starling have made a mark in the world of banking with their digital-only offerings, while in China Alibaba and Tencent have launched their mobile wallets, Alipay and WeChat Pay.

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