Some global fintech startups have recently gone through a brutal period, including plummeting valuations, reduced liquidity, mass layoffs, and failed sales. The stock prices of fintech companies fell by an average of 60% from their peak, and private investment also decreased significantly. According to CB Insights, venture capitalists invested $75 billion globally in fintech in 2022, down from $140 billion in 2021.
In Korea, many fintech startups are unable to overcome operating deficits, while also achieving growth by trying out many innovative services. In particular, it is encouraging that domestic fintech startups are actively targeting overseas markets based on the technological capabilities they have accumulated in the domestic market.
To highlight Korea’s fintech leaders, Forbes Korea selected Korea’s Fintech 50 based on data from startup investment database The VC. Domestic fintech companies are concentrated in the remittance/payment sector, and companies offering more personalized information services based on financial my data analysis are growing rapidly. On the other hand, in fields that are hot in overseas fintech, such as blockchain/cryptocurrency and fraud prevention, there are still limitations in finding remarkable growth in Korea.
※ Methodology – In the VC DB, 253 unlisted startups and small and medium-sized companies based in Korea and categorized as finance were evaluated. First, candidate companies are first filtered according to the definition of fintech (technology + finance) and major subcategories are divided into Remittance/Payment
- Corporate Investment
- Loan/Lending
- Insurance
- Asset Management
- Stocks/Securitie
- POS/Kiosk
- Data/Infrastructure
Divided into: The selection criteria include each company’s 2022 sales, assets, operating profit, and accumulated investment amount. The values of each item were normalized and weighted, and the evaluation coefficients were calculated and compared by adding them up. In order to focus on services that are on track in the actual financial market, the largest weight was given to sales among the evaluation items. Forbes Korea then finalized the final list through secondary filtering based on the innovation, originality, and marketability of fintech companies’ services.
Bankware Global: Kyung-jo Lee, Eun-joong Lee 70.7 billion won, 437 people
Bankware Global is currently targeting the domestic and overseas core banking solution market with ‘BX-CBP’, a digital core banking software. The ‘core banking’ system is a core engine that oversees core banking sysem such as deposits, loans, foreign exchange, and external systems. Core banking implements the overall sales, operation, and processing of products handled by banks, such as deposits, savings, and loans. In addition, the vast amount of data extracted from here is used as core analysis data for the information system. BX-CBP is evaluated as having features such as ▲cloud native platform ▲open API platform ▲microservice architecture (MSA)-based application architecture ▲highly scalable product factory that overcomes the weaknesses of the existing core banking system. Bankware Global has been recognized for its innovation and has begun targeting the Asian market by establishing overseas corporations such as China’s joint venture Xiangyun and Japan’s