In the last quarter New York's financial technology ("fintech") hub received more venture capital financing than Silicon Valley for the very first time, according to the Partnership Fund for New York City.
The report shows that the growth of New York's fintech sector led to US$690 million of investment in the quarter, compared to US$511 million of investment in Silicon Valley. This has led many in the industry to proclaim this as the golden age of fintech.
Whilst the United States may lead the world with exciting fintech companies, Australia is by no means a slouch. There are three companies on the ALL ORDINARIES (Index: ^AXAO) (ASX: XAO) at the moment that I believe could be great fintech investments today.
Afterpay Holdings Ltd (ASX: AFY)
Afterpay is a rapidly growing company that provides retailers with the option to allow their customers to buy goods online now, but pay later without interest or fees. The company makes its money by bearing the default risk of the sale in exchange for a small commission. Afterpay currently has agreements with Tony Bianco, General Pants Co, Optus, and CUE, to name a few. It has also recently entered into an agreement with Neto to provide its services on its next generation e-commerce platform when it launches later this year. Neto is majority owned by Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) and has 2,000 merchants currently processing over $1 billion of retail transactions each year.
Class Ltd (ASX: CL1)
Class is a newly-listed leading provider of self-managed super fund software with a rapidly growing share of the market. In March the company announced it had reached the milestone of 100,000 billable portfolios for the first time. With a total of 100,025 billable portfolios on the Class system, this was an increase of 3,388 portfolios from 31 December 2015. Even though the share price has risen 136% since its IPO in December, I feel the company has such strong growth prospects that it is still a good investment for those with a long-term outlook.
Praemium Ltd (ASX: PPS)
Praemium is a very exciting fintech company which provides software platforms for investment administration, separately managed accounts, and financial planning. A recent announcement that it signed up wealth management firm JBWere sent the share price rocketing up by 18%. JBWere is a leading private wealth management business in Australia and New Zealand, wholly owned by National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB). The deal is expected to be worth around $1 million per year in revenue for Praemium, which is likely to further boost its impressive top line growth. In its half year results the company delivered revenue and other income of $14.7 million, which was a 35% increase on the same period in FY 2015. I believe this level of growth can continue for some time. This makes this growing company a great option for growth investors.
