Nine payments companies made Forbes’ Fintech 50 2023 list, up from six in 2022. Niche newcomers GlossGenius, a platform for beauty businesses, and Mudflap, a fuel marketplace for truckers, join the likes of giant processor Stripe.
The world of payments is evolving rapidly as fintech startups race to incorporate more useful functions–beyond online payment processing–into their offerings, with the aim of enabling non-financial businesses to do more at the point of sale. Consider GlossGenius, a newcomer to this year’s Fintech 50 list. Its software, designed specifically for independently run beauty businesses, includes appointment bookings, expense management and financial reporting tools, along with payment processing done with handheld readers boasting stylish designs (e.g. a cheetah print) suited to the industry. The buzz around merging payments with that sort of customer assistance, also called embedded finance, has helped GlossGenius secure $44 million in total funding and a $360 million valuation. (It probably doesn’t hurt that its founder is a Princeton economics grad who did a stint at Goldman Sachs. You can read more about her and other founders who are new to the list here.)
Meanwhile, Mudflap, another first timer on the list, is also focused on expanding its services within a particular industry segment. First it created an app that hooks up owner-operators and small truck fleets with truck stops offering fuel discounts through the platform; then it launched the Mudflap Fleet Card (a Visa card that provides truckers more discounts and it more fees); and now its rolling out tools to help business owners manage their fuel costs.
The big kahuna of payment processing, of course, remains Stripe, the most valuable private fintech in the U.S. It not only processed $817 billion worth of transactions across more than 50 countries in the past year, but has expanded its services into charge card issuing and tools to help its customers facilitate cryptocurrency purchases, among other product launches.
Melio, on the list for a second year, has also ridden the embedded finance trend–in its case to a $4 billion valuation. With 42% of business-to-business transactions still occurring using paper checks, Melio offers a way for small businesses to pay bills and get paid digitally. It has integrated directly with Quickbooks and Shopify, allowing customers to be paid directly from these sites. It charges customers a 1% fee to expedite a same-day payment and 2.9% to pay by credit card. GlossGenius, similarly, collects a 2.6% processing fee on payments run through the platform.
Here are the 9 payments companies that made the Fintech 50 in 2023:
GlossGenius
Appointment-booking and payments software company serving independent beauty businesses. Seven-year-old GlossGenius charges a monthly fee between $24 and $48, collects a 2.6% processing fee on payments and sells custom card readers. In the past year, it launched a feature requiring a deposit at the time of appointment booking to discourage cancellations. More than half of its revenue comes from payments.
Headquarters: New York, New York.
Funding: $44 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, Imaginary Ventures, Left Lane Capital and others.
Latest Valuation: $360 million.
Bona fides: Processes more than $2 billion annually for more than 50,000 customers.
Founder and CEO: Danielle Cohen-Shohet, 33, a former alternative investments analyst at Goldman Sachs.
Melio
Helps small businesses pay bills and get paid digitally, instead of through paper checks. Aiming to differentiate itself from larger competitor Bill.com, Melio focuses on embedding its payment technology into platforms like Shopify or QuickBooks, enabling customers to make payments directly from these sites. It charges customers a 1% fee to expedite a same-day payment and 2.9% to pay by credit card. In 2022, Melio’s payment volume was north of $25 billion, more than double the year before.
Headquarters: New York, New York.
Funding: $506 million from Bessemer, Accel, Coatue and others.Latest Valuation: $4 billion.
Latest Valuation: $4 billion.
Bona fides: Grew quarterly active users to 100,000 at the end of 2022 from 64,000 at the end of 2021.
Cofounders: CEO Matan Bar, 38, former director of global peer-to-peer payments at PayPal; CTO Ilan Atias, 44, a former vice president at maritime data analytics firm Windward; and Ziv Paz, 39, who left Melio in February 2022.
Mudflap
Through its marketplace, Mudflap connects owner-operators and small fleets with truck stops offering fuel discounts. In the last year, it also launched the Mudflap Fleet Card, offering added discounts and enabling it to collect fees on customers’ purchases. Mudflap is also rolling out fleet management tools to help business owners manage their fuel costs.
Headquarters: Palo Alto, California.
Funding: $85 million from QED, Matrix Partners, Commerce Ventures and others.
Latest Valuation: $700 million.
Bona fides: 500,000 truckers across 167,000 companies use Mudflap to fuel up.
Cofounders: CEO Sanjay Desai, 49, and head of product Sharon Yapp, 45, both former employees at trucker-navigation and load-management app TruckerPath.
MX
Allows clients to connect to customers’ financial data, interpret that data and build products around those insights. Its customers span traditional financial institutions and fintechs like U.S. Bank, Canadian bank CIBC and Stripe. In August 2022, Jim Magats took the helm of MX as CEO after 18 years as an executive at PayPal.
Headquarters: Lehi, Utah.
Funding: $475 million from Canapi Ventures, CapitalG and TPG Growth, among others.
Latest Valuation: $1.9 billion.
Bona fides: Brought in $99 million in 2022, up from $92 million the year before.
Cofounders: Executive chairman Ryan Caldwell, 47, and Brandon Dewitt, who died in November 2021 at 38 years old.
Nium
A global payment network for businesses offering real-time payments and card-issuing services. The company can disburse payments in nearly 200 countries, collect funds in 100 currencies and issue cards in 35 countries. It counts payroll provider Rippling and human resources platform Deel as customers, and its lead investors include two of the largest sovereign wealth funds in Singapore, Temasek and GIC. In the past two years, Nium has acquired three companies: travel payments business Ixaris, Indian card issuer Wirecard Forex and SoCash, a Singapore-based payment company with a network of over 20,000 retailers across Asia.
Headquarters: San Francisco, California.
Funding: $300 million from Temasek, GIC and Riverwood Capital, among others.
Latest Valuation: $2.1 billion.
Bona fides: In 2022 it brought in more than $80 million in net revenue, up from $31 million in 2021.
Cofounders: CEO Prajit Nanu, 41, former director of business development at global compliance group TMF Group; chief business officer Michael Bermingham, 57, who spent nearly a decade in foreign exchange at trading firm StoneX; chief operating officer Pratik Gandhi, 48, formerly chief business officer at remittance company InstaReM.
Plaid
Connects consumer bank accounts to financial apps and services and counts many major fintechs as customers, including Venmo and Robinhood. Plaid moves financial data across a network of over 12,000 banks, credit unions and financial institutions. In 2023, it expanded into transferring more than just data with the launch of Instant Payouts on Transfer, a service allowing businesses to disburse loan payments, insurance payouts and wages instantly. In 2022, it added new identity verification tools to simplify compliance processes for clients and reduce fraud.
Headquarters: San Francisco, California.
Funding: $735 million from Altimeter Capital, Silverlake, Index Ventures and others.
Latest Valuation: $13.4 billion.
Bona fides: Grew client base to 7,500 in 2022, up from 6,300 the year before.
Cofounders: CEO Zachary Perret, 35, and William Hockey, 33, who left Plaid in 2019 to start technology-focused bank Column last year.
Stripe
Founded in 2010 by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, Stripe processes payments for online businesses. In 2022, the company processed $817 billion worth of transactions across more than 50 countries, though the U.S. is its largest market. It recently launched Stripe Docs, a tool powered by OpenAI’s natural language technology GPT-4, which makes it easier for developers to search Stripe documentation. In March 2023, Stripe announced a $6.5 billion fundraise at a $50 billion valuation, down nearly half from its $95 billion valuation in 2021. The recent fundraise will be used to offer liquidity to employees and pay associated taxes, the company says.
Headquarters: San Francisco, California; Dublin, Ireland.
Funding: $8.9 billion from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst and others.
Latest Valuation: $50 billion.
Bona fides: Customers include OpenAI, Microsoft, Ford and Amazon.
Cofounders: Brothers Patrick and John Collison, 34 and 32, respectively, sold their first startup, an auction-management system for ecommerce sellers called Auctomatic, for $5 million in 2008 before starting Stripe in 2010.
TabaPay
Six-year-old payments software company that speeds up money movement for fintechs and banks. It has direct access to 14 payment networks including Visa, Mastercard, regional debit networks and the ACH bank-to-bank transfer network, which allows it to smartly route payments for faster speeds and lower fees. TabaPay counts digital bank Chime, bill pay platform Melio and personal loan and credit card company Upgrade as customers.
Headquarters: Mountain View, California.
Funding: Mostly self-funded, it has raised $2.5 million from Aligned Partners.
Bona fides: 2,500 customers at the end of 2022, up from 2,000 the year prior; $26 million in net revenue in 2022, compared with $17 million 2021.
Cofounders: CEO Rodney Robinson, 59, who sold his second payments startup, Omney, to Mastercard in 2014; chief technology officer Marvin Mah, 60, who worked with Robinson at Omney; and chief revenue officer Manoj Verma, 56, a former business development executive.
VizyPay
Offers pared-down payment processing services for small business owners in rural areas. Its monthly subscription service helps merchants offset up to 100% of their credit and debit card fees by automating price adjustments for cash and card payments. The bootstrapped company counts local businesses like car dealerships and restaurants among its clients. VizyPay had 14,021 customers at the end of 2022, up from 10,845 at the end of 2021.
Headquarters: Waukee, Iowa.
Funding: Bootstrapped.
Bona fides: Processed $1.7 billion worth of payments in 2022, up from $1.2 billion in 2021.
Cofounders: CEO Austin Mac Nab, 39, a former executive sales director at payment processing company Central Payment; managing partner Frank Pagano, 46.
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