The financial sector has not been adverse to technology, however the monumental push by startups in the mid-2010s to disrupt financial sectors, spurred on by governments slackening regulations, forced established players to modernise its services to meet the demands of a new generation of customers.
Everything from banking to investment to insurance has been modernised, utilising the power of the internet and mobile to improve speeds, reduce costs and improve customer service.
In 2009, fintech startups received $1.1 billion from venture capital investors. In 2020, total investment reached $44.1 billion, according to Pitchbook. While that has declined a bit in 2023 and 2024, fintech startups continue to receive large amounts of capital to pursue new ideas.
One of the key benefits of these technologies is opening up banking to more people. Robinhood’s zero fees opened the stock market to millions of Americans, NuBank is the first bank for millions of Latin Americans and in China hundreds of millions of people swapped cash for mobile payments in the late 2010s and never looked back.
As we said at the start, this has forced established financial providers to modernise or die. In the UK, the ‘Big Four’ banks have all modernised operations, in some cases bringing their entire portfolio of financial services online. In the US, insurance and lending services have been forced to lower fees and accept requests at a faster rate to keep up with newer platforms.
While the potential of these insurgent apps is limited in the US and Europe, in China and Latin America these fintech startups are the primary supplier of financial services.
In China especially, Alibaba and Tencent have overtaken the major banks as the primary supplier of payments, lending and investment. Due to the lack of financial infrastructure in China pre-mobile, Alibaba and Tencent have forwarded the country by decades in mobile payments adoption and other banking services, which are now seen as critical to the country’s economy.
In this sector profile, we will highlight two key statistics from each of our financial sector profiles.
Finance App Market Landscape
The finance app market can be classified into several distinct subcategories, all of which contribute hundreds of billions of dollars in transaction volume every year. Banking is the key industry, many mobile banks also offer savings and investments. Offshoots of this focus on budgeting and saving. There’s also stock trading and crypto apps, which provide users with ways to invest in stocks and altcoins. You can download the map as a PDF, which includes a landscape version for presentations.
Mobile Payments App Market
Mobile payments started in the West with the introduction of Apple Pay in 2014, which is the most popular mobile payment service outside of China. Alibaba and Tencent have carved out a market of equal size to the entire West, using QR codes to pay.
Mobile Payments Transaction Volume
The transaction volume for mobile payments reached $7.39 trillion in 2023.
Mobile Payments Adoption by Country
China is far ahead of the rest of the world in total usage and adoption for mobile payments.
Mobile Banking App Market
Anyone used online banking pre-mobile will remember the dreadful user interfaces, bizarre sign-in methods and inability to access key services. Neobanks brought us into the 21st century, and have collected millions of users in the process.
Mobile Banking Revenue by App
Brazilian-based NuBank generated the most revenue out of all neobanks, at $8 billion.
Mobile Banking Valuations by App
NuBank is the highest valued neobank, and one of the few to be a public company. Revolut is the highest valued private neobank.
Stock Trading App Market
Robinhood set off a wave of new trading apps aimed at making stocks available to all. Most trading platforms in the US have lowered commissions and fees to compete with Robinhood.
Stock Trading App Revenue
Revenue from stock trading and investment apps increased in 2023 to $20.6 billion.
Stock Trading Users by App
Robinhood is the most popular stock trading app in the world, with 10.8 million users.
Cryptocurrency App Market
Cryptocurrency is back, with Bitcoin and other altcoins surging passed previous peaks in 2024.
Cryptocurrency Market Revenue
Cryptocurrency exchange generated $43.5 billion revenue in 2023.
Cryptocurrency Users by App
Binance was the most used cryptocurrency exchange with 200 million users.
More Finance App Data
- PayPal Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025)
- eToro Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025)
- Starling Bank Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025)
- Robinhood Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025)
- Coinbase Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025)
- Cryptocurrency App Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025)
- Venmo Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025)
- NuBank Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025)
- Monzo Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025)
- FTX Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025)
