Fintech startup ideas for you to explore
Here are the top cool fintech startup ideas of 2022 from a fintech design agency that knows what will still be in demand years from now.
5 September, 2022
In the current tech climate, fintech solutions don’t need much of an introduction - anyone knows them, and almost everyone uses one. With startups emerging every year, striving to solve some existing problem or issue, many businesses want in on it. Yet to create a truly helpful fintech product, you have to follow trends that will give you a clearer picture of what the market needs at the moment. Here are the top cool fintech startup ideas from a fintech design agency that knows what will still be in demand years from now.
What is currently going on in fintech?
Before we delve into new fintech startup ideas, let’s quickly see what is going on in the fintech industry at the moment, numbers-wise.
The global fintech market generated about $340 billion in revenue in 2024 and is projected to hit roughly $395 billion in 2025, almost double its pre‑COVID size. That equates to ~21 % year‑over‑year growth, vastly outpacing the 6 % recorded by incumbent financial‑services firms.
Fintech has always thrived in the wake of crises: its first surge followed the 2008 crash, and today’s second wave gained speed after the Covid pandemic and the 2022‑23 inflation shock. Financial institutions keep evolving, and consumer behaviour has shifted so radically that legacy norms simply don’t cut it anymore.
Digital payments illustrate the change: payments players captured $126 billion of the industry’s $378 billion revenue pool in 2024, about one‑third of all fintech income, and attracted $31 billion of that year’s funding on their own.
Adoption is widespread: 75 % of global consumers now rely on a payment or money‑transfer fintech product, and surveys show cash use keeps sliding across major economies.
Unsurprisingly, fintech startups are the new black. Roughly 29 955 fintech startups operate worldwide today, up from 26 346 in 2023 and just 12 000 in 2019. The United States alone hosts 13 100 of them.
Capital is still flowing: investors deployed $95.6 billion across 4 639 deals in 2024, while 14 new unicorns lifted the global count to 326.
Best fintech startup ideas
So, to be considered a fintech startup, a company has to operate in the financial sector and rely on a variety of contemporary technology to meet the needs of its clients. A startup part of it means that the business focuses on innovation and replacing traditional financial practices.
Such companies usually take concepts that are in no way new to modern people, such as banking, and try to offer more effective solutions. Take fintech AI startups, for example, and their use of artificial intelligence to improve financial services.
But enough with the small talk. Here are the best fintech startup ideas of the current year that will be profitable for many more years to come. Choose the one that speaks to you.
Digital banking
One of the top fintech ideas today is digital banking, offering the best alternative to traditional brick-and-mortar banking institutions, where long queues and your physical attendance are unavoidable. Even though the idea is not new, cue various products like Current, Revolut, Chime, etc., the market is still open for new tools, provided they are useful and offer something that others don’t.
Personal finance management
A different type of financial management comes in the form of money-saving fintech products. Apps like Mint, Ibotta, and BillTracker help people better manage their personal finances. They can track and analyze your spending habits, give you advice on how to plan and calculate a monthly, weekly, or even yearly budget, and actually guide you through it. If you want to create a personal financial helper, go either a habit tracking or budget planning route.
Investment applications
Another one of the popular fintech projects ideas is creating an investment tool. Investments may sound like something out of rich people’s lingo, but more and more people nowadays are trying it out to earn passive income. Investment applications such as Robinhood, Betterment, Wealthfront, and Invstr allow customers to invest in stock or other platforms, even if it’s just a micro-investment, while also providing guidance and analytics.
Online P2P payment apps
Peer-to-peer payment tools take up a special place among startup fintechs. As a subset of digital banking, digital payment tools are focused more on money exchange between regular customers and businesses rather than managing savings and checking accounts. Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and suchlike tools are widely recognizable, and nearly everyone who has a smartphone uses one.
Digital insurance products
Yet another one of the top-notch fintech company ideas is building digital insurance products like Esurance, Metromile, Zego, Wrisk, etc. So-called Insurtechs are basically digital products that help people apply for various kinds of insurance, from cars and homes to personal insurance, on more beneficial terms, such as better features, fairer coverage, cheaper pricing models, and more personalization options.
Crypto exchange tools
And last but not least, as one of the best fintech innovation examples, crypto exchange solutions are one of the most modern directions you can follow today. Crypto still remains a buzzword, and most people not in the financial industry or tech sector hardly understand the fuss about it. Platforms like Binance, bitFlyer, Coinbase, and Bitfinez are actively trying to minimize the gap between crypto and the common folk, and if you want, you can do it too.
Examples of fintech startups
Now let’s move on to some brief examples of fintech startups currently dominating our modernized financial sector.
Revolut. Founded in London in 2015, Revolut claims to be an application able to manage all your money matters - from currency exchanges and digital wallets to even crypto trading.
Robinhood. This California-based startup is an easy-to-use investment and stock trading application with zero commissions, making investing more accessible to beginner traders.
M1 Finance. Established in Chicago seven years ago, M1 Finance is a money-management app with the main focus on exchange-traded fund and stock portfolio investments.
Bluesheets. Founded in Singapore in 2020, Bluesheets is a bookkeeping platform helping to automate financial data across multiple platforms with artificial intelligence.
Chime. Another Californian on our list, Chime, is a digital bank or neobank offering customers numerous mobile banking services and solutions for little to no fees.
Klarna. A Swedish startup created back in 2005, Klarna elevates online shopping experiences by offering a handy eCommerce payment solution for both sellers and buyers.
Fintech startup opportunities for you
If you want your business to end up among the cool fintech startups that have, in a good way, disrupted the whole financial industry with innovative solutions, and you already have some semblance of an idea of what kind of product you would like, don’t hesitate to take your concept to Merge. Years of fintech design and development experience allow us to make refined and easy-to-use products your audience will appreciate.
