Global venture capital firm, GGV Capital released their Embedded Fintech 50 list, which recognizes companies driving the next phase of fintech innovation. In celebration of the groundbreaking companies honored on this list, GGV Capital rang the closing bell at Nasdaq’s MarketSite while Nasdaq got to sit down with some of these innovative companies.
“Embedded Fintech remains a bright spot in today’s market, and it is exciting to see how companies are democratizing access to financial services through technology,” said GGV Capital managing partner Hans Tung.
Embedded fintech companies integrate financial services with commercial activity, meeting end-users at the point of need and embedding data and information exchange directly into transaction flows, which enables smoother financial transactions between services and consumers.
GGV Capital manages $9.2 billion in investments worldwide and has backed large companies that continue to re-invent their sector today. To make this list, the firm combed through over 175 embedded fintech companies that were nominated by 57 investment firms with a history of investing in this sector, including GGV Capital in partnership with CrunchBase.
Companies are nominated on the criteria of a primary product focus on fintech, a focus on the U.S. as a primary market and a Series A stage or beyond. The top 50 companies are voted on by participating firms that have a place on the Embedded Fintech 50 list.
A few of these companies sat down with Nasdaq and spoke about how their company innovates commerce.
Lithic.
Bo Jiang, CEO and Co-Founder
Lithic simplifies the process for companies to issue credit and debit cards. Historically, there were only two options as CEO and Co-Founder Bo Jiang explains, “TurnKey which was really inflexible and rigid, or this long, drawn-out implementation process which would take years and millions of dollars.” The company makes their API (application programming interface) more accessible, which simplifies how developers build card programs. Their aim is to fix the supply chain for these services and lower the barriers for building new products so “everybody wins”.
Wrapbook
Cameron Woodward, Co-Founder
Wrapbook’s mission, according to Co-Founder Cameron Woodward, is to “increase the prosperity of the project economy with better financial services.” The company sees “a tremendous opportunity in empowering individual skilled workers with their own profile, with their preferences of how they like to be paid, and how they like to work, allowing them to go to work with other companies engaged in producing projects.”
A platform that primarily works with the film and entertainment market, the company efficiently organizes and increases transparency in payroll operations for a project economy. Through the improved financial services that Wrapbook provides, individual skilled workers are given the opportunity to choose how they like to be paid and how they want to work.
Pinwheel,
Kurt Lin, Co-Founder and CEO
Pinwheel’s Co-Founder & CEO Kurt Lin shares a striking personal narrative on why the company’s services are crucial to a more accessible economy. Lin’s father is a first-generation immigrant from a culture that frowns upon debt. Through recollection of a childhood memory, he describes his father’s failure to take out a mortgage without a credit score and the feelings of frustration in this failed endeavor.
Years later, Lin realized that the existing financial system can be inaccessible for many. But using data to bridge this gap in accessibility, many more people can gain access to life-improving financial services they couldn’t obtain before. Pinwheel helps consumers and businesses get the required financial documents already existing in payroll and administrative systems to banks and lenders. This helps customers get loans, open bank accounts, etc. so they can build better businesses, build new products while helping banks and businesses operate much more efficiently.
Novo,
Michael Rangel, Founder and CEO
Novo focuses on empowering small businesses by providing affordable, transparent banking services. As CEO Michael Rangel explains, Novo is “a small business checking account with a debit card as an attachment”. But its primary product is the first step into accessing a service that’s easier for “bigger small businesses.”
Entrepreneurship is a bold endeavor that not only requires courage but also knowledge of how to manage transactions. This knowledge can be a costly resource accessible to few people. Through Novo’s product, small business owners can centralize most of their commercial operations. Its goal is to empower more people to become business owners.
The companies on GGV Capital’s Fintech 50 list align with Nasdaq’s committment to fostering transformative innovation and inclusive prosperity by broadening the horizons for increased participation in commercial transactions. As the first electronic stock exchange, Nasdaq believes that technology should break down barriers to enable flourishing economic prosperity. We look forward to supporting GGV Capital and the honorees as they continue to innovate the fintech space.