To no surprise, AI is at the forefront of these changes. The tech is no longer confined to chatbots or data analysis; it now executes real financial workflows, from compliance reviews to transaction monitoring. Crypto’s story is maturing in parallel and moving away from speculation, as stablecoins, custody platforms, and tokenization become part of everyday financial operations for businesses and institutions alike.

This year’s Fintech 100 highlights the companies poised to lead this transformation. We selected the 100 winners from over 15,000 companies using deal activity, industry partnerships, investor strength, hiring momentum, and CB Insights’ predictive scores for success (Mosaic Scores) and commercial traction (Commercial Maturity).

This year’s cohort spans 26 countries with a record 60 winners outside the US. The winners have an average Mosaic score of 775 (top 2% of private companies) and are scaling fast with 61% average headcount growth over the past year vs. the fintech average of 13%.

Below, we map out the winners, categorizing them based on their core offering. Customers can track all 100 companies in this Expert Collection. Key trends follow. 

Please click to enlarge. Data as of 10/23/25.

CBI customers: Get data on the winners

Key takeaways on the Fintech 100

1. AI agents are tackling specialized financial workflows, from debt collection to autonomous payments.

Eleven companies on this year’s Fintech 100 are enabling AI agents, automating tasks from fraud detection to financial planning. They span 8 of the 14 categories, showing how agents’ impact is permeating across sectors in financial services.

While horizontal AI agent platforms have dominated investment activity in the broader landscape, these companies are carving out niches by building agents for specific financial workflows. For example: 

• Borderless’s agent Alberni, launched with LLM developer Cohere, automates global employment and payroll.
• Anti-money laundering (AML) software company Greenlite’s agents accelerate AML reviews.
• Debt collection platform Murphy reports 40% higher recovery rates using agentic models.

Beyond workflow automation, several companies are developing payment infrastructure for AI agents. Catena Labs is building agentic payments rails that will enable users to authorize AI agents to transact on their behalf. Its backers include Coinbase’s and Circle’s venture arms. Circle has also backed Crossmint, which is developing a wallet on the blockchain that will allow agents to hold funds and make independent purchases. 

The trajectory is clear: specialized agentic solutions will continue to reach into every layer of financial services. 

2. AI is automating the core of enterprise finance as financial operations platforms expand into full-stack ecosystems.

Seventeen companies on this year’s Fintech 100 — up from ten in 2024 — are using AI to take over accounting, payroll, and treasury workflows once managed manually. The result is faster close cycles, cleaner data, and finance teams that operate with real-time visibility across the business.

Fintech 100 leaders are deploying AI to handle complex, repetitive financial tasks:

• Campfire’s AI-powered ERP replacement achieves 95% accuracy on financial reconciliations.
• Xelix’s agents detect fraud, prevent overpayments, and automate supplier queries.
• Niural’s agent EMMA runs global payroll across 150 countries.

At the same time, payroll and financial operations providers are layering in adjacent financial services — salary access, digital banking, and cross-border payments — to create integrated workforce finance platforms. 

• Khazna offers earned wage access for underbanked employees in Egypt and Saudi Arabia
• InstaPay collects digital salaries and remittances for migrant workers in Malaysia. 
• Every includes incorporation, banking, and benefits management within its payroll suite.  

These moves show how payroll is becoming the anchor for embedded finance. Global providers such as Workday, Gusto, and Deel are accelerating this shift through acquisitions and new product extensions.

As AI takes on more financial decisioning and compliance tasks, financial operations platforms are evolving into self-updating systems that can reconcile, forecast, and route payments automatically — turning finance from a reactive function into a continuous, data-driven process.

3. Digital asset companies are enabling crypto in everyday transactions and institutional finance.

Crypto payments infrastructure and institutional DeFi together form the largest sector in this year’s Fintech 100, with momentum driven by unprecedented attention and activity in stablecoins, as well as regulatory tailwinds. 

Fintech 100 winners in crypto payments infrastructure are enabling the use of digital assets in day-to-day finance, from crypto card payments to enterprise transactions. On the enterprise side, BVNK, Rain, and Noah are building stablecoin payment rails, allowing businesses to transact with crypto more affordably, while Transak embeds crypto payments and fiat access directly into enterprise workflows. For consumers, RedotPay and Baanx are expanding access to crypto payments via Visa and Mastercard integrations.

As regulators greenlight digital asset use by traditional institutions, other Fintech 100 winners are building the infrastructure for banks and asset managers to hold, issue, and trade tokenized assets at scale:

• RD Technologies was admitted to Hong Kong’s stablecoin standbox and is partnering with ZA Bank to develop stablecoin use cases. 
• DigiFT, a dually-licensed Singapore-Hong Kong exchange for tokenized RWAs, expanded its partnership with UBS Asset Management on its Ethereum-based uMINT fund. 
• Komainu, a licensed custodian in the UK, Italy, and Dubai serving institutional investors raised $75M in Series B funding in January.

Expect incumbents to pursue deeper partnerships and acquisitions in digital assets as crypto-native firms build the next layer of global financial infrastructure.

Deep dive into all companies here

Mosaic scores from the 2025 Fintech 100 winners

For information on reprint rights or other inquiries, please contact reprints@cbinsights.com.

The post Fintech 100: The most promising fintech startups of 2025 appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Now, our Book of Scouting Reports offers in-depth analysis on every single one of the Fintech 100 winners, from crypto payments infrastructure to embedded finance.

Combining CB Insights’ proprietary data and AI, scouting reports provide insight into each company’s:

• Funding history
• Headcount
• Key takeaways (including opportunities and threats)
• Commercial Maturity score
• Mosaic score

Download the book to see all 100 scouting reports.

The post Book of Scouting Reports: 2025’s Fintech 100 appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Rohit Verma, President & Chief Executive Officer of Crawford & Company, shares executive insights on insurance affordability.

A few months ago, I sat down to review my monthly expenses and was stunned. My auto insurance premium had climbed over 30%, and my home insurance has almost doubled since the start of the pandemic. These aren’t discretionary expenditures — they’re essential protections. Friends and colleagues have shared similar stories, some even seeing insurance costs exceed their monthly mortgage payments, a shift unimaginable just a few years ago. One friend recently asked me, “Where is this going? Are we heading toward a future where insurance becomes unaffordable for the average household?”

In recent years, insurance rates have increased considerably, largely due to severe property losses from wildfires, storms, and hurricanes. Social inflation is also straining the industry. These pressures have forced carriers to raise deductibles and prices; trends reflected in property loss ratios. Necessary to maintain industry stability, these actions have also burdened policyholders, challenging affordability and accessibility, and intensifying financial strain. Crawford adjusters witness how today’s risk environment challenges insurance’s core purpose: transferring risk from insured to insurer.

Thankfully, recent reinsurance renewals suggest relief may be on the horizon, barring major catastrophes. As these dynamics unfold, we expect pricing and deductibles to ease, leading to normalization in the next 12 to 18 months. However, current premiums aren’t sustainable, and the industry must act now to support customers through this period.

This short-term relief opens a critical window to implement more sustainable solutions, like enhanced technology adoption, resilient rebuild strategies, and stronger safeguards against legal exposure and fraud. Smarter technology use, resilient rebuilding, and proactive stances against damaging practices offer meaningful progress toward stability, though none are quick fixes.

Technology is a vital lever to alleviate cost pressures and improve the insurance experience as the market normalizes. Advanced solutions, such as agentic AI, predictive analytics, and AI-powered risk insights, are already transforming insurance. These technologies streamline workflows, enable faster, more accurate estimates, and help insurers proactively manage risks.

These innovations go beyond efficiency; they reshape the customer experience. Policyholders benefit from faster claims resolution, more transparent communication, and tailored risk management. Leveraging real-time data and automation, insurers deliver responsive, personalized service, restoring trust and confidence, even amid market pressures.

This report, developed with CB Insights and Crawford & Company, offers a data-driven roadmap for addressing affordability. By analyzing tech momentum and affordability across nine P&C lines, we pinpoint where technology most effectively reduces loss costs and benefits policyholders. Findings show targeted adoption of advanced tech, especially in cyber, homeowners, and auto, delivers the greatest impact.

I encourage all of us as industry stakeholders to use this insightful report to explore investments, partnerships, and solutions. Together, we can build a more resilient insurance ecosystem — keeping coverage accessible, affordable, and customer-centric for all.

Rohit Verma
President & Chief Executive Officer
Crawford & Company

Overview

Insurance coverage is becoming increasingly unaffordable for businesses and consumers, with loss costs rising rapidly due to factors like extreme weather, labor shortages, and supply chain disruptions.

To improve affordability, insurance companies must prioritize innovative ways to deploy technology across loss prevention efforts. While technology alone is not enough to improve affordability, it offers the most tangible opportunities to lower costs.

Below, we identify top tech-driven loss prevention opportunities to improve insurance affordability across nine P&C insurance lines of business. We rank these opportunities across two axes:

• Tech momentum assesses startup ecosystem strength and tech applicability across a line of business. We measure tech momentum using CB Insights’ datasets such as deal activity, company headcount, and our proprietary Commercial Maturity — which measures a private company’s ability to compete or partner — and Mosaic scores — which measure the overall health and growth potential of private companies.
• Affordability pressure assesses the impact of loss cost increases for policyholders across a line of business. We evaluate affordability pressure by surveying Crawford & Company’s global claims experts, coupled with CB Insights’ Public Company Financials data.

Key takeaways: Opportunities with the greatest potential impact

1. Cyber leads in startup momentum, offering insurers the richest landscape of tech innovation to improve affordability.
2. Homeowners’ insurance faces the greatest affordability pressure, making it the most urgent line for loss-prevention technologies despite limited ready-made solutions.
3. Commercial and personal auto face an innovation gap, with high affordability pressure but low startup momentum — requiring insurers to carefully vet and selectively scale emerging solutions.

1. Cyber leads in startup momentum, offering insurers the richest landscape of tech innovation to improve affordability.

Cyber insurance faces only moderate affordability pressure, primarily from data breaches and hacks, compared to other lines like auto and homeowners that are more exposed to medical costs, materials shortages, and natural catastrophes (NatCats). What makes cyber unique is that leading players such as Coalition (an insurtech unicorn with $300M+ in revenue in 2024) actively embrace technology to prevent and reduce losses at scale.

Because the line is inherently tech-centered, nearly every new entrant presents a potential opportunity to lower loss costs. Risk management practices within cyber have generally reduced claims severity, as noted by Greg Smith, President, Canada at Crawford & Company:

“A larger number of smaller cyber claims are reducing severity, as is a more disciplined focus on underwriting and loss control in this space. Loss ratios for cyber lines in Canada have improved significantly in recent years because of improved underwriting and risk management.”

Between July 2022 and June 2025, cyber-focused startups completed more than 2,500 deals of at least $100K in funding, more than any other line of business analyzed. With a median CB Insights’ Mosaic score (success probability) of 615 out of 1,000, cyber startups tie general liability for the highest score across the 9 lines of business.

This surge of new entrants reflects rising enterprise concerns around AI security, which has spiked in executive commentary since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022. For example, Knostic, founded in 2023 and recently doubling its headcount from 22 to 44, helps enterprises identify and mitigate large language model data leakage risks.

Looking ahead, as individuals and businesses increasingly adopt AI, advanced cyber risk detection and rapid response capabilities will become critical. Insurance companies should prioritize evaluating partnerships with cyber startups or building comparable in-house capabilities to pass affordability gains onto policyholders.

2. Homeowners’ insurance faces the greatest affordability pressure, making it the most urgent line for loss-prevention technologies despite limited ready-made solutions.

Homeowners’ insurance experienced the steepest estimated loss ratio increases among all business lines analyzed, coinciding with rate increases spurred by natural catastrophes (NatCats). Survey respondents also pointed to fraud, labor shortages, and materials shortages as amplifying factors.

Reducing loss costs within homeowners’ insurance will depend on consistent data availability for individual homes and surrounding communities, as noted by Tim Butler, Head of Contractor Connection & CRD, Australia at Crawford & Company:

“For quite a number of years, there has been consistent talk of preventative measures in the form of water pressure meters and standard home tech. Unfortunately, it appears adoption of this technology remains an uphill effort. There is, however, an increase in the use of data available, which appears to be creating more consistency around loss cost.”

While more than 1,900 startup deals touch the homeowners’ space, many of these products were not designed specifically for insurers, requiring carriers to actively identify and adapt external technologies for loss prevention.

For example, Atmosic is developing low-power Internet of Things (IoT) charging infrastructure that insurers could implement via homeowner-provided sensors. Homeowners could receive these sensors at the start of hurricane season, ensuring extended power to generate data on risks that could result in a costly claim.

Beyond sensors, insurance companies should also eye non-traditional data and risk engineering methods to improve affordability. For instance, Figure, a humanoid robotics company founded in 2022 and backed by Bezos Expeditions, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and OpenAI, is targeting household deployments. In the future, humanoid robots could proactively maintain homes, generate maintenance data, and provide insurers with differentiated insights to mitigate loss risks.

Looking ahead, affordability improvements in homeowners’ insurance will require a broad set of technologies that support both loss control and proactive risk management. NatCat events, in particular, will continue to stress the market, presenting increasingly pressing needs to reduce loss costs to the greatest extent possible.

3. Commercial and personal auto face an innovation gap, with high affordability pressure but low startup momentum — requiring insurers to carefully vet and selectively scale emerging solutions.

Commercial and personal auto rank lowest in tech momentum across all lines of business analyzed. Many of these startups are in the electric vehicle space, a sector now facing market headwinds with reduced executive attention and a pullback in dealmaking.

Despite weak innovation supply, both auto lines remain under high affordability pressure, second only to homeowners. Survey participants cited macro-economic factors such as rising materials costs and social inflation as primary contributors to worsening claim trends, with Steve Blakemore, Managing Director, U.S. Loss Adjusting at Crawford & Company, noting:

“Cost of materials and specialized repair processes to include aluminum bodies and e-vehicles have increased significantly beyond affordable deductibles.”

Technology opportunities for loss prevention exist, but they require disciplined evaluation — and need to extend beyond established telematics capabilities. For example, AtoB is a payments platform for the trucking industry with investors including Bloomberg Beta and Mastercard. The company’s revenue is projected to reach $100M by the end of 2025.

Coupled with existing data from telematics capabilities, insurance companies could utilize AtoB’s spending data to offer policyholders predictive notifications — for instance, guidance on routes to avoid areas with a higher likelihood of collisions.

Insurance companies should also identify opportunities related to autonomous vehicles, particularly after Waymo’s $5.6B Series C funding round in October 2024. Autonomous vehicle technology offers insurance companies potentially valuable data points that can inform loss prevention strategies as autonomous driving becomes more prevalent.

Looking ahead, improvements to auto insurance affordability through technology will require access to unique data sources that provide differentiated insights into driving risks. Carefully selected tech partnerships can provide insurance companies with access to this data, enabling them to offer policyholders proactive notifications that curb risky actions and prevent costly losses.

Line of business spotlights

Prioritize

Commercial property

Overview: Insurance coverage for business buildings, facilities, warehouses, and commercial real estate against property damage and operational risks.

Insurance Affordability Outlook placement:

• Affordability pressure ranking — 4th
• Tech momentum ranking — 5th

Data highlights:

• Pool of 800+ deals analyzed
  • Median deal size — $10.8M
  • Median current Mosaic score — 563 out of 1,000
  • Most frequently listed current Commercial Maturity — Scaling (level 4 out of 5)
• Survey respondents indicated that commercial property has significant exposure to weather-related natural catastrophes.
• Survey respondents also identified materials shortages and supply chain disruptions as highly relevant factors to commercial property.

Potential startup collaboration: Doss is an AI-enabled enterprise resource planning platform serving industries like construction, manufacturing, and supply chain. The company more than doubled its headcount between July 2024 and July 2025. An insurance company could pursue a partnership with Doss to gain data access to flag supply chain shortage risks that could otherwise lead to costly repairs and restorations.

Construction

Overview: Specialized insurance coverage for construction companies, contractors, and building projects, addressing construction-specific risks including accidents, defects, and site safety.

Insurance Affordability Outlook placement:

• Affordability pressure ranking — 5th
• Tech momentum ranking — 3rd

Data highlights:

• Pool of 1,100+ deals analyzed
  • Median deal size — $4.0M
  • Median current Mosaic score — 562 out of 1,000
  • Most frequently listed current Commercial Maturity Score — “Deploying” (level 3 out of 5)
• Construction has the third-highest tech momentum, indicating ample opportunity for innovation in the space.
• Survey participants indicated the following factors as highly relevant: weather-related natural catastrophes, labor shortages, materials shortages and supply chain disruptions.

Potential startup collaboration: AUAR builds mobile, robotics-powered micro-factories for home construction. The company partnered with industrial giant ABB in 2024 to expand operations in the United States. Given that micro-factories can reduce construction costs due to the potential need for less labor, materials, and transportation, insurance companies could offer AUAR-partnered construction companies less costly premiums.

Cyber

Overview: Insurance coverage against cybersecurity threats, data breaches, and digital risks affecting business operations and customer information.

Insurance Affordability Outlook placement:

• Affordability pressure ranking — 6th
• Tech momentum ranking — 1st

Data highlights:

• Pool of 2,500+ deals analyzed
  • Median deal size — $6.0M
  • Median current Mosaic score — 615 out of 1,000
  • Most frequently listed current Commercial Maturity Score — “Deploying” (level 3 out of 5)
• Cyber has the highest tech momentum, boosted above the others as the line is inherently tech-enabled. Cyber startups have the highest weighted-average score across deals analyzed in the report, and the largest deal count analyzed across the lines of business.

Potential startup collaboration: Lakera is a security platform for genAI applications. The startup has a CB Insights’ Mosaic score among the top 2% of companies globally, and is one of the world’s most-promising AI startups as a 2025 AI 100 winner. Insurance companies could partner with Lakera to offer the company’s tech to support policyholders’ AI agents, identifying and protecting against potential data breach attempts from malicious prompts.

Homeowners

Overview: Personal insurance coverage protects residential properties and personal belongings against property damage, natural disasters, and household risks.

Insurance Affordability Outlook placement:

• Affordability pressure ranking — 1st
• Tech momentum ranking — 7th

Data highlights:

• Pool of 1,900+ deals analyzed
  • Median deal size — $4.2M
  • Median current Mosaic score — 562 out of 1,000
  • Most frequently listed current Commercial Maturity Score — “Deploying” (level 3 out of 5)
• Homeowners’ insurance leads in affordability pressure, with analysis zeroing in on claims severity and loss ratio change (the greatest across lines analyzed) as key pain points.
• Survey respondents indicated that homeowners’ insurance has significant exposure to weather-related natural catastrophes.

Potential startup collaboration: Honey Homes is an on-demand maintenance service currently serving homeowners in California, Illinois, and Texas. Insurance companies could evaluate partnerships with Honey Homes to gain access to trending service requests in localized areas, like upticks in window replacements across older homes. Insurance companies could then derive data-driven signals from those requests to inform preventive action for potentially costly events, such as sending plywood and sandbags to homeowners in a projected hurricane path.

Vet

Commercial auto

Overview: Insurance coverage for vehicles used in business operations, including fleet management, trucking operations, and commercial transportation risks.

Insurance Affordability Outlook placement:

• Affordability pressure ranking — 3rd
• Tech momentum ranking — 9th

Data highlights:

• Pool of 500+ deals analyzed
  • Median deal size — $7.0M
  • Median current Mosaic score — 613 out of 1,000
  • Most frequently listed current Commercial Maturity Score — “Deploying” (level 3 out of 5)
• Commercial auto had the lowest tech momentum ranking due to below-average company scores and deal count.
• Materials shortages, medical costs, and social inflation are key factors in commercial auto claims.

Potential startup collaboration: Outpost offers a network of managed freight terminals, featuring a gate management platform that reviews truck data like license plates and registration numbers using computer vision technology. The company doubled its financial capacity in September 2025 to $1B. Insurance companies could pursue a partnership conversation with Outpost to gain access to gate data for risk modeling purposes.

General liability

Overview: Broad business insurance covering third-party claims for bodily injury, property damage, and operational risks arising from normal business activities.

Insurance Affordability Outlook placement:

• Affordability pressure ranking — 7th
• Tech momentum ranking — 6th

Data highlights:

• Pool of 200+ deals analyzed
  • Median deal size — $6.6M
  • Median current Mosaic score — 615 out of 1,000
  • Most frequently listed current Commercial Maturity Score — “Deploying” (level 3 out of 5)
• Survey responses indicated that general liability is experiencing increased claims severity. Social inflation and increased medical costs are key factors relevant to general liability claims.

Potential startup collaboration: Relay provides communication and location-tracking devices for frontline workers across industries, like entertainment, healthcare, and hospitality. The startup’s headcount has grown rapidly in recent years, with a projected revenue of $100M by 2027. Insurance companies could evaluate offering Relay’s product to business customers, like concert venues and restaurant operators. The tech deployment would support employee responses to potential claims-triggering risks, such as wet floors that could lead to slip and fall incidents.

Inland and ocean marine

Overview: Specialized coverage for goods in transit, commercial equipment, and property that moves between locations or operates in maritime environments.

Insurance Affordability Outlook placement:

• Affordability pressure ranking — 9th
• Tech momentum ranking — 2nd

Data highlights:

• Pool of 900+ deals analyzed
  • Median deal size — $5.3M
  • Median current Mosaic score — 607 out of 1,000
  • Most frequently listed current Commercial Maturity Score — “Deploying” (level 3 out of 5)
• Inland and ocean marine has the second-highest tech momentum, indicating strong opportunities to improve insurance affordability — despite the lowest pressure to improve affordability across all lines of business assessed.
• Survey respondents indicated the following factors as relevant: fraud, labor shortages, materials shortages and supply chain disruptions, and weather-related natural catastrophes.

Potential startup collaboration: Altana AI is a supply chain intelligence platform backed by Google Ventures and Salesforce Ventures, and — as a CB Insights 2024 Insurtech 50 winner — one of the world’s most-promising insurtech startups. The company offers products for business interruption risk and supply chain network planning. Insurance companies could explore Altana AI’s platform to gain visibility into potential supply chain risks and reroute shipments that otherwise face heightened risk for damage or loss.

Personal auto

Overview: Individual insurance coverage for personal vehicles, protecting against accidents, vehicle damage, and liability arising from personal driving.

Insurance Affordability Outlook placement:

• Affordability pressure ranking — 2nd
• Tech momentum ranking — 8th

Data highlights:

• Pool of 900+ deals analyzed
  • Median deal size — $7.3M
  • Median current Mosaic score — 606 out of 1,000
  • Most frequently listed current Commercial Maturity Score — “Deploying” (level 3 out of 5)
• Personal auto has the second-highest affordability pressure among lines of business analyzed, primarily due to loss ratio change estimates.
• Startups relevant to personal auto ranked the lowest in momentum due to a low weighted average score.
• Survey respondents indicated challenges around claims severity.

Potential startup collaboration: NoTraffic is a traffic management company that offers IoT devices to collect data at intersections and an AI platform to support traffic optimization decisions. NoTraffic is a NVIDIA partner and previously participated in the NVIDIA Inception Program. Insurance companies could evaluate partnerships with NoTraffic to support deployments that could reduce traffic accidents and lower claims costs.

Workers’ compensation

Overview: Mandatory insurance providing medical benefits and wage replacement for employees injured on the job, covering workplace accidents and occupational hazards.

Insurance Affordability Outlook placement:

• Affordability pressure ranking — 8th
• Tech momentum ranking — 4th

Data highlights:

• Pool of 100+ deals analyzed
  • Median deal size — $5.0M
  • Median current Mosaic score — 581 out of 1,000
  • Most frequently listed current Commercial Maturity Score — “Deploying” (level 3 out of 5)
• Survey participants generally viewed medical cost increases and social inflation as relevant to workers’ compensation insurance.

Potential startup collaboration: Protex AI offers a computer vision product that gives customers visibility into workplace risks (like speeding forklifts in warehouse environments) to prompt intervention by environment, health, and safety teams. DHL and Marks & Spencer are among Protex AI’s customers. Insurance companies could seek a partnership with Protex AI to offer the platform to policyholders facing elevated risks for workers’ compensation claims, like manufacturers and warehouse operators, due to workplace injuries.

Monitor

No lines of business fall within this category.

Methodology

The insurance affordability outlook provides an informational visual framework for insurance leaders to identify opportunities to improve insurance affordability for policyholders.

The opportunities encompass potential tech deployments for loss prevention and response across 9 lines of business: commercial auto, commercial property, construction, cyber, general liability, homeowners, inland and ocean marine, personal auto, and workers’ compensation.

The resulting visual plots the lines of business relative to one another across 3 categories:

1. Monitor — Lines of business with lower signals to warrant investment in tech to support insurance affordability. Insurance leaders should track developments in this space for future consideration.
2. Vet — Lines of business with moderate signals to warrant investment in tech to support insurance affordability. Insurance leaders should evaluate potential partnerships and tech deployment, pursuing the most-promising opportunities as innovation activities.
3. Prioritize — Lines of business with strong signals to warrant investment in tech to support insurance affordability. Insurance leaders should prioritize partnerships and tech deployments to operationalize.

Calculations across 2 axes — tech momentum and affordability pressure — guide plotting for each line of business.

Tech momentum

Tech momentum assesses startup ecosystem strength and tech applicability across the 9 lines of business.

This report leverages CB Insights’ AI-enabled deal search to identify 8,900+ venture-backed equity deals of at least $100K across the lines of business between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2025. Deals were identified based on keywords specific to the lines of business, and some deals were excluded from the analysis. Deals analyzed in this report are not mutually exclusive, although the aggregate total constitutes approximately 9% of venture dealmaking between Q3’22 and Q2’25.

We generate a score for each deal that reflects the company’s momentum within the marketplace. The score uses CB Insights’ data, such as deal activity, company headcount, and proprietary Commercial Maturity and Mosaic scores. We include startups from across the venture landscape, although we assign greater weight to insurtechs given their direct relevance to the insurance market. Weighted average calculation guides the final ranking of the scores and the total number of deals analyzed across each line of business.

Affordability pressure

Affordability pressure evaluates the approximate impact of loss costs on insurance affordability for policyholders across the 9 lines of business.

We leverage 2 different data sources to measure affordability pressure for each opportunity:

• Survey of claims experts — 64 Crawford & Company employees provided directional insights across 160 line of business-specific responses on global loss trends.
• Loss ratio changes among publicly-traded insurers — Loss ratio changes between 2022 and 2024 across a sample of 15 companies: AIG, Allstate, American Financial Group, Arch Capital Group, AXIS Capital, Chubb, Everest Group, GEICO, Mercury General Corporation, Old Republic Insurance Group, Progressive, Selective Insurance, The Cincinnati Insurance Companies, Travelers, and W.R. Berkley. The data points are approximate based on the business mix of each of the 15 companies, and mindful of loss ratio dynamics in recent years due to the potential (or actual) impact of rate and price increases.

The final ranking is guided by the survey outputs and loss ratio change outputs, supported by ChatCBI reasoning leveraging data from across CB Insights’ Business Graph.

Additional notes

CB Insights has provided the information contained in this report for informational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CB Insights. Reasonable efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information, and CB Insights makes no representation or warranty, express or implied, as to its completeness or accuracy.

Crawford & Company has not vetted, nor does it endorse, any of the companies or technologies mentioned in this report. These references are illustrative in nature and should be viewed solely as examples rather than recommendations.

The insurance affordability outlook is not an investment analysis, and should not be used to guide financial- or investment-focused decisions, including those pertaining to any insurance company operating across the analyzed lines of business. In addition, the report leverages a non-actuarial analysis and should not be used to discern financial performance (including loss ratio performance) across any lines of business analyzed.

This report is global in scope, although the analysis largely centers on the United States. Regulations and market dynamics differ across geographies, and the report does not account for every nuance across the industry.

We selected the 15 companies for the loss ratio change analysis due to comparable data reporting practices of loss ratio performance on annual reports using CB Insights’ Public Company Financials data. The report uses loss ratios as underlying loss costs are often not reported in a standardized format on annual reports. Loss ratios include loss adjustment expenses and typically spans lines of business. The changes in loss ratios were used to derive signals for lines of business subject to more affordability pressure.

The insurance affordability outlook is not absolute. The insurance industry and broader tech landscapes are subject to constant change, so future developments have the potential to impact the findings presented in this report.

About

Crawford & Company

Crawford & Company® is a leading global provider of quality claims management and outsourcing solutions with an expansive network of experts serving clients in more than 70 countries. Our unique ability to combine innovation and expertise advances our purpose to restore lives, businesses and communities across the globe. For over 80 years, clients have trusted Crawford to care for their customers as a seamless extension of their brand, keeping the focus where it belongs—on people. More information is available at www.crawco.com.

Contact: info@us.crawco.com

CB Insights

Headquartered in New York City, CB Insights is the leading provider of AI for market intelligence. The company aggregates, validates, and analyzes hard-to-find private and public company data. Its powerful AI tells users what it all means to them personally. The world’s smartest companies rely on CB Insights to focus on the right markets, stay ahead of competitors, and identify the right targets for sales, partnership, or acquisition. Visit www.cbinsights.com for more information.

Contact: researchanalyst@cbinsights.com

The post The insurance affordability outlook: Opportunities to alleviate insurance’s affordability problem with technology appeared first on CB Insights Research.

In this report, we used CB Insights data, including funding and dealmaking, valuations, exit activity, and talent signals to highlight the key forces propelling growth and market evolution across fintech.

Key takeaways from the report include:

• Fintech funding is flat vs. Q2’25, but capital is concentrating in mega-rounds. Fintech funding hit $10.9B in Q3’25. Deal count declined 9%, mirroring the slowdown in dealmaking across venture. But mega-rounds accounted for 40% of all funding as investors continue to shift toward fewer, larger bets: year-to-date, average and median deal sizes are more than 35% above 2024 levels, even as deal count declines. If this trend continues, smaller competitors may face increased pressure, potentially accelerating consolidation and strategic acquisitions in the sector. 
• AI captures nearly one-quarter of fintech funding as agentic solutions gain market traction. Five of the top 10 deals went to AI-powered finance platforms like Ramp and AppZen, positioning AI leaders to widen their competitive gap as AI-first and agentic solutions scale.
• Investors shift to more established fintechs. In Q3’25, mid- and late-stage fintech deal share reached its highest level since 2021 at 22%. As investors look for clearer paths to scale, funding, high valuations, and exits are concentrating among more mature players, potentially limiting opportunities for early-stage startups.  
• The recovery in fintech exit activity continues. Fintech exits accelerated in Q3’25, with M&A deals rising 19% to 249 — the highest in more than 3 years — and IPOs for the quarter reaching 15, a 16-quarter high. Digital assets remain a key driver: many of the largest M&A and public offerings were in crypto, underscoring growing institutional interest. The rebound signals growing investor confidence and could spur further consolidation, particularly into crypto-focused fintech.
  
• Wealth tech maintains momentum, with funding on pace to nearly double 2024 totals and companies ramping up hiring activity. Wealth tech’s YTD funding of $4.2B has already surpassed its 2024 level, making it one of the few fintech sectors with strong momentum across the year. Companies in the sector are also expanding rapidly: according to CB Insights talent signals, 3 of the top 5 fastest-growing tech markets in year-over-year hiring are in wealth tech, signaling strong confidence in digital-first wealth management solutions. AI is accelerating this momentum, with applications that can quickly enhance investment and advisory tools, driving faster adoption.

We dive into the trends below.

Fintech funding is flat vs. Q2’25, but capital is concentrating in mega-rounds

In Q3’25, fintech funding was flat versus Q2’25, at $10.9B. Deal count declined 9%, mirroring the broader slowdown in dealmaking across venture. Every fintech vertical saw quarter-over-quarter declines except for payments and capital markets, the latter of which was mainly boosted by iCapital’s $820M raise.

The iCapital deal underscores the return of mega-rounds’ impact in fintech. In Q3, the 10 largest equity deals were all $100M+ rounds, with mega-rounds accounting for 40% of total funding — just below Q2’s 42%, a 9-quarter peak. This shift is driving average and median deal sizes higher, both of which are more than 35% higher YTD than in 2024.

If the trend toward fewer, larger deals persists, the gap between top-tier fintechs and smaller competitors will continue to widen. This could accelerate consolidation in mid-stage fintech and favor strategic acquisitions by incumbents.

AI captures nearly one-quarter of fintech funding as agentic solutions gain market traction

Among the largest deals in Q3’25 were rounds for AI-powered fintechs, highlighting the growing role of autonomous solutions in finance and creating a new competitive tier in fintech. AI-enabled fintechs captured 23% of Q3’25 fintech funding, the highest share since Q4’23. 

Five of the 10 largest fintech equity deals went to companies heavily deploying AI in their solutions. Ramp raised a $500M Series E-II just 45 days after its initial Series E in June 2025, as it launched hundreds of AI-powered tools and its first AI agents. AppZen, which builds AI agents for financial operations with its proprietary LLM, also raised a $180M Series D round. 

AI-enabled companies’ share of fintech deals remained steady at 17% in both Q2 and Q3’25,  reflecting investors’ focus on proven autonomous capabilities. 

Investors shift to more established fintechs 

Investors are also prioritizing investments in more mature fintechs in 2025, signaling a structural reset in risk appetite. 

Mid- and late-stage companies have captured 22% of all deals YTD, the highest concentration since 2021. Median deal sizes YTD for mid- and late-stage deals have also increased vs. 2024, by 16% and 50%, respectively.

In contrast, early-stage deals now make up less than two-thirds (66%) of total activity, the first dip below 70% since 2020. The shift reflects a strategic pivot toward companies with established business models and clearer paths to scale.

The largest mid- and late-stage rounds went to companies with proven scale, predictable growth, and measurable efficiency gains. In addition to the large late-stage rounds for Ramp and AppZen, investors concentrated on financial operations solutions, including automated accounts payable (Xelix), small business financial management (Hala, Uzum), and ERP solutions (Omie).

Meanwhile, competition for capital among early-stage companies is intensifying. Digital asset startups remain notable, capturing almost one-third of the top 20 seed and Series A deals. The rounds include Stable ($28M), which raised $28M to build a blockchain for USDT payments and announced a partnership with PayPal, and Agora ($50M), which offers white-label stablecoins.

For fintech executives and investors, this shift implies that capital will increasingly flow to proven players, potentially compressing opportunities for early-stage startups. If the late-stage concentration continues, we expect 2026’s fintech unicorn pipeline to shrink, and exits will cluster among today’s leaders. Early-stage companies may face longer timelines to reach scale or be forced into strategic partnerships or acquisitions.

The recovery in fintech exit activity continues

Exits in fintech continued to climb quarter-over-quarter, signaling renewed investor confidence as well as opportunities in crypto. 

M&A activity grew 19% to 249 deals, the highest level in more than 3 years and 73% higher than the trough in Q3’23. IPO activity reached its highest point since Q4’21, and just the fifth time the quarterly figure hit double digits in the last 4 years. 

Similar to last quarter, digital assets remain a driving force in exits. Four of the 10 largest M&A deals in the quarter went to stablecoin and crypto payments companies. Ripple‘s $200M acquisition of stablecoin payments provider Rail marks its second major purchase this year, following April’s Hidden Road deal. This concentrated activity reflects traditional finance’s rush to build crypto capabilities, a trend that will accelerate as regulatory frameworks solidify.

Meanwhile, crypto exchanges Bullish and Gemini completed public offerings, highlighting rising institutional interest. The public market activity provides benchmarks for valuations and signals investor appetite for digital asset innovation.

Continued M&A and IPO momentum is driving fintech’s first major acquisition cycle since 2021. For crypto infrastructure, regulatory clarity and institutional adoption are likely to accelerate consolidation. Broadly, the next exit wave will create new exit opportunities for early- and mid-stage fintechs, while late-stage companies may find IPO windows opening earlier. 

Wealth tech maintains momentum, with funding on pace to nearly double 2024 totals and companies ramping up hiring quickly

Wealth tech remains resilient as investors double down on mature wealth solutions and AI-augmented solutions. While funding in the space hit declined QoQ to $1.6B, YTD funding in wealth tech of $4.2B already surpasses 2024’s full-year total of $3.4B, despite broader market headwinds.

Driving Q3’s wealth tech funding total were companies focused on automation, including automated portfolio management software (Pave Finance) and tech-enabled advisors and retirement plans (Savvy Wealth, Vestwell).

Wealth tech companies are also hiring rapidly. According to CB Insights Talent Signals, 3 of the top 5 fastest-growing fintech markets by year-over-year hiring are in wealth tech, covering AI tools for financial advisor productivity and investment intelligence. Year-over-year headcount growth in all of these markets exceeds the fintech average of 5.7% by sixfold or more.

The rapid headcount expansion across AI advisor tools suggests wealth management is approaching an automation inflection point. AI can quickly boost advisor productivity and investment decision-making, creating fast, tangible impact. AI-augmented advisors will become a critical differentiator in wealth management, creating opportunities for strategic investments, tech partnerships, and M&A for AI-enabled advisory solutions.

For information on reprint rights or other inquiries, please contact reprints@cbinsights.com.

The post State of Fintech Q3’25 Report appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Track 450+ companies in CB Insights’ Stablecoin Expert Collection

Our methodology focuses on companies with strong acquisition potential by filtering for:

• M&A Probability: CB Insights’ proprietary signal measuring a private company’s chance of an M&A exit within the next 2 years, used to screen companies based on exit likelihood.
• Mosaic Score: CB Insights’ proprietary metric measuring private companies’ overall health and growth potential using non-traditional signals, widely used to identify high-potential emerging tech companies.

All companies in our stablecoin acquisition radar have above-average M&A probability (greater than 20%) and Mosaic scores (greater than 370).

Within this dataset, we identified the most promising acquisition candidates across the stablecoin ecosystem, with Mosaic scores greater than 650 and M&A probabilities over 35%.

Stablecoin funding and fintech M&A surge in tandem

Stablecoin funding is set to surge nearly tenfold in 2025, reaching a projected $10.2B. This funding boost coincides with a sustained spike in fintech M&A activity overall. Meanwhile, domestic fintechs are increasingly active in stablecoins, indicating near-future acquisitions by payment processors and crypto giants.

For example, Ripple, which has recently launched a stablecoin, acquired prime brokerage Hidden Road, and applied for a banking license, acquired stablecoin B2B remittance company Rail.io for $200M, positioning itself as an enterprise financial services provider powered by blockchain technology.

Mike Giampapa, General Partner of Galaxy Ventures (which provided Series A funding to Rail last year) explains:

”Despite $190T+ in annual flows, cross-border payments remain outdated. Galaxy Ventures invests in stablecoins and next-gen rails to deliver more efficient, transparent, and programmable payments. Rail stood out as an API-first platform merging fiat and digital into one compliant network – removing friction, lowering costs, and setting a new global standard for payments.”

Key takeaways:

Many companies in the M&A interest zone are developing stablecoin infrastructure designed for existing financial services providers, positioning themselves to support traditional financial institutions wading deeper into digital assets

This also makes them prime targets for crypto giants looking for entry points to mainstream financial processes.

With an M&A probability of 35% and a Mosaic score of 790, the next logical target could be OpenTrade, which offers white-label stablecoin infrastructure and yield products to neobanks, custodians, and treasury managers. Bastion (36% M&A probability, 696 Mosaic score) provides a stablecoin issuance platform for financial institutions and enterprises, making it attractive for controlling traditional finance’s entry into stablecoins.

Major crypto companies are already blending stablecoin capabilities with conventional financial services. Ripple’s acquisitions of Rail.io and Hidden Road, alongside its banking license application and RLUSD launch, signal a strategy to provide enterprise financial services using blockchain infrastructure. And stablecoin issuer Circle applied for a banking license in June following its $7B IPO earlier that month. As crypto giants increasingly resemble financial institutions, the startups using stablecoins to build bridges to TradFi emerge as key acquisition targets to drive and support this process.

Startups using stablecoins to facilitate cross-border payments via on- and off-ramps are prime candidates for acquisition

As the highest-potential acquisition target, 1Money Network stands out with a 62% M&A probability and 670 Mosaic score. Like Ripple’s recent acquisition, Rail, 1Money Network’s API offering for high-volume, cross-border stablecoin transactions makes it an attractive target for established processors looking to rapidly deploy stablecoin capabilities globally or crypto giants encroaching on traditional finance. And like Rail, it’s already backed by Galaxy Ventures.

Major payment processors accelerating stablecoin integrations to counter crypto competition will be the next to snap up these key targets. Already, payment processors are rapidly integrating stablecoin infrastructure to defend cross-border payments market share. Mastercard and Visa enabled new stablecoins on their networks this summer. And earnings transcripts mentions of “stablecoins” from both have increased sharply since the beginning of 2025. Meanwhile, Stripe has acquired stablecoin infrastructure companies Privy and Bridge ($1.1B). And it just unveiled a Layer-1 blockchain in partnership with Paradigm designed to facilitate cross-border payments using stablecoins.

Yield solutions are the next key target for players of all sizes

Yield-bearing stablecoins are a nascent space attracting diverse investor attention. Despite having the lowest average commercial maturity scores, yield and liquidity solutions are attracting the most deals and funding among all stablecoin categories.

Big names in fintech and crypto have already begun to acquire companies in the space. Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge last year included its USDB coin, which generates interest through BlackRock money market fund backing. In January, Circle acquired tokenized money market fund provider Hashnote for $5M.

High-potential acquisition targets include Yield.xyz (42% M&A probability, 635 Mosaic score), which aggregates returns across multiple yield opportunities through cross-chain APIs. Zoth (50% M&A probability, 616 Mosaic score) offers restaking layers, tokenized funds, stablecoin issuance, and the ZeUSD token for generating yield from financial instruments.

What is Mosaic?

Mosaic is CB Insights’ proprietary metric that measures private companies’ overall health and growth potential using non-traditional signals. Mosaic is widely used as a target company and market screener to identify high-potential emerging tech companies.

What is M&A Probability?

M&A Probability is CB Insights’ proprietary signal that measures a private company’s chance of an M&A exit within the next 2 years. It is used to quickly screen and triangulate companies based on exit likelihood.

Combining Mosaic Score and M&A Probability makes it easy to shortlist acquisition targets.

For information on reprint rights or other inquiries, please contact reprints@cbinsights.com.

The post Stablecoins are becoming the new M&A battleground. Here’s who could be next appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Yet this trend isn’t new — it’s been building for years with the 345 investments these institutions have made in the space between 2020 and 2024. In the visual below, we’ve highlighted the G-SIBs’ blockchain investments from 2023-present:

Using CB Insights Business Graph data, and in partnership with Ripple and the UK Centre for Blockchain Technologies, we used CB Insights Business Graph data to power Banking on Digital Assets, a report that explores how banks have made global investments in the digital asset ecosystem over a five-year period.

Download the report for an inside look at how, where, and why banks are investing in blockchain technology and digital asset applications.

The post Banking on Digital Assets: How Traditional Finance is Investing in Blockchain appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement (ICHRA)-focused deals nudged L&H deal count upward, in part driving the highest deal share among US-based insurtechs since Q3’17.

Below, we break down the key takeaways from this quarter’s report, including:

• Quarterly insurtech deal count dips below 100 again
• Funding to P&C insurtechs plummets from Q2’21 peak
• $100M+ mega-round deals lead to a surge in L&H insurtech funding
• ICHRA startups capture nearly 20% of insurtech funding
• US-based startups raise 3 in 5 global insurtech deals

Download the full report to access comprehensive data and charts on the evolving state of insurtech.

Quarterly insurtech deal count dips below 100 again

Insurtech deal count fell 9% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), from 100 deals in Q1’25 to 91 in Q2’25. This decrease mirrors the broader venture environment, which also saw QoQ deal count decline by the same percentage.

Insurtech funding fell 21% QoQ, from $1.4B in Q1’25 to $1.1B in Q2’25 — also in line with the broader venture environment (-24% QoQ). However, unlike the rest of venture, insurtech has not experienced an AI-driven funding boom in recent quarters. The median venture deal size reached a new high of $3.5M in 2025 YTD, largely due to AI, while the median insurtech deal size has fallen by 19% to $4.2M over the same period.

Explore the top 20 AI agent startups by revenue

Future implication: Given investors’ appetite for billion-dollar deals, insurance incumbents should prepare for potential disruption if an AI-focused insurtech secures major funding.

Funding to P&C insurtech falls 89% from Q2’21 peak 

P&C insurtech funding plummeted from $1.2B in Q1’25 to $0.4B in Q2’25, falling well below the quarterly average of $0.8B over the past 2 years. As a result, P&C insurtech funding reached an 8-year low for the quarter (Q3’17 was the last quarter with less P&C insurtech funding).

The decline in P&C insurtech funding comes as no P&C insurtechs raised a Series D+ deal in Q2’25. Comparatively, 3 P&C insurtechs raised $100M+ mega-rounds across Series D+ deals in Q1’25.

P&C insurtech deal count also declined, falling from 72 in Q1’25 to 57 in Q2’25. Just 5 startups raised over half of the quarter’s P&C insurtech funding:

• Ledgebrook, a professional liability MGA ($65M Series C)
• Marshmallow, an auto insurer ($45M Series B)
• Steadily, a landlord insurer ($30M Series C)
• Orus, a small business insurance broker ($29M Series B)
• Reserv, a third-party administrator ($25M Series B)

Even so, the P&C insurtech space did see its first IPO since Q2’24: Florida-based home insurer Slide Insurance completed its IPO at a $2.1B valuation.

Check out Ledgebrook, Reserv, and more 2024 Insurtech 50 winners

Future implication: Despite the broader P&C funding decline, 3 of the top 5 P&C insurtech deals by funding amount in Q2’25 went to startups focused on small and midsize businesses (SMBs) — signaling that targeted growth opportunities within this segment remain attractive to investors.

$100M+ mega-round deals lead to a surge in L&H insurtech funding

L&H insurtech funding surged from $0.2B in Q1’25 to $0.7B in Q2’25, well above the quarterly average of $0.4B over the past 2 years.

Eight of the quarter’s top 11 deals went to L&H insurtechs, including both of the quarter’s $100M+ mega-round deals:

• Gravie, a late-stage benefits platform ($144M Series G, and later amended to $150M in a filing on July 9)
• Bestow, a former insurer that has since pivoted to become a software provider ($120M Series D)

L&H insurtechs raised 32 deals in Q2’25, an increase from 28 in the quarter prior. Unlike P&C insurtech, the median L&H insurtech deal size ($6.0M) is up in 2025 YTD.

69% of L&H insurtech deals went to US-based companies, the highest amount since Q3’15, underscored by a focus on health benefits across the US market.

In addition, L&H insurtech saw its first unicorn since Q2’22 and its first IPO since Q3’22:

• Chapter, a Medicare navigation platform, became the quarter’s only new insurtech unicorn after raising its $75M Series D round at a $1.5B valuation.
• Xiaoyusan Insurance, a broker focused on diversified life and health products, went public.

CBI customers: Use our agents to uncover insights for Chapter

Future implication: As nearly half of the quarter’s top deals by funding amount went to health and benefits-focused startups, insurers should prioritize expanding employer-focused sales channels for the upcoming open-enrollment season.

ICHRA startups capture nearly 20% of insurtech funding

The US federal government established ICHRA plans in 2019, spurring commercial traction in recent years. Notably, an ICHRA platforms market has since emerged, with 5 startups raising $234M in equity funding across 5 deals in Q2’25:

• Gravie ($144M, with participation from Atlantic Vantage Point)
• Thatch ($40M, with participation from ADP Ventures and SemperVirens Venture Capital)
• Venteur ($20M, led by American Family Ventures)
• Zorro ($20M)
• zizzl health ($10M)

An ICHRA is an alternative to traditional employer-selected health plans in the US, where employers instead allocate money for their employees to select their preferred qualified plan individually. ICHRA startups facilitate these payments, providing a central platform for benefits managers to administer their company’s ICHRA program.

The ICHRA platforms market is seeing favorable traction, evidenced by widespread increases in Mosaic score — measuring the overall health and growth potential of private companies — among companies assessed.

Most of these companies — Thatch, Gravie, Venteur, Remodel Health, Take Command Health, Zorro, StretchDollar, and BenefitBay — have Mosaic scores in the top 5% of all private companies tracked by CB Insights.

CBI Customers: Check out leaders in our ICHRA platforms market

Future implication: Health insurers have the potential to increase enrollment by enhancing distribution channels to engage individuals employed by SMBs using ICHRAs.

US-based startups raise 3 in 5 global insurtech deals

60% of Q2’25 insurtech deals went to US-based startups — an 8-year high. Q3’17 was the last quarter to see a larger deal share among US-based startups (61%).

The increase was attributable to slight deal share increases across both L&H and P&C insurtech (from 68% to 69% and from 53% to 56%, respectively).

Within the US, Silicon Valley and the New York City metro areas led in Q2’25 insurtech deals — 11 and 9, respectively.

Europe-based startups raised 21% of Q2’25 insurtech deals: 6 of those deals went to France-based startups, and 5 went to UK-based startups.

Check out the top 50 venture investors in France

Future implication: US insurtech deal share has increased each quarter since Q3’24, so companies should evaluate growth opportunities in global markets with less insurtech presence (i.e., less competition).

MORE INSURTECH RESEARCH FROM CB INSIGHTS

• 100 real-world applications of genAI across financial services and insurance
• Insurance’s new frontier: 3 innovation imperatives for 2025 and beyond
• Our 6 predictions for the insurance space in 2025

The post State of Insurtech Q2’25 Report appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Many of the world’s most influential financial services firms — like Allianz, J.P. Morgan, and Mastercard — have taken concrete action to adopt genAI technology.

The genAI adoption efforts have shaped 2 years’ worth of corporate strategy, unveiling key priorities — from the rise of agentic commerce to customer service copilots — across the competitive landscape.

Using CB Insights data, we identified and analyzed 100 real-world applications of genAI from 69 companies across banking, insurance, and payments.

Download the book to explore all 100 applications, and read on for 5 key takeaways and a breakdown of our methodology.

Key takeaways

1. Cross-functional platforms are now table stakes.

24% of applications center on deploying general-use genAI platforms to employees.

Prominent firms like BBVA have established enterprise-wide genAI capabilities across their organizations (typically via enterprise-wide deployments of platforms like Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT). Early adopters — like Klarna, which shared in May 2024 that 87% of its employees are using OpenAI technology — now have over a year of genAI operational experience at scale, which can guide the development of more complex applications in the future.

Looking forward, financial services firms without a plan to provide genAI access to employees risk competitive disadvantage. Over the past 2 years, simply providing genAI capabilities to employees has shifted from cutting-edge innovation to standard operations.

2. Microsoft and OpenAI permeate the adoption landscape.

33% of applications analyzed disclose involvement from either Microsoft or OpenAI.

Microsoft and OpenAI (in which Microsoft has significantly invested) overwhelmingly permeate the landscape of genAI applications analyzed. Many of these applications anchor on foundational capabilities, from which organizations can build more complex applications and agents. Anthropic, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud follow a similar deployment pattern across multiple companies in the sector.

Looking forward, financial services firms should prepare for increasingly blurred “build, buy, or partner” decisions. The prevalence of genAI model developers (like OpenAI and Anthropic) and big tech partners (like Microsoft and Google) provide financial services executives with more flexibility to customize their tech solutions than what has traditionally been the case with many point-solution providers.

3. Emerging genAI vendors face a fierce competitive landscape.

Median Mosaic Scores among genAI startups analyzed are in the top 3% globally.

The 100 analyzed genAI applications include engagement from 25 startups as tech vendors, ranging from pre-seed companies like Twin — which offers an agent for invoice collection — to late-stage giants like Anthropic. These startups have a median CB Insights Mosaic Score — which measures the overall health and growth potential of private companies — of 732 out of 1,000, as of July 30, 2025.

Looking forward, financial services firms should prepare for increasingly capable tech vendors seeking to sell their genAI products. These vendors must exhibit a clear advantage over the alternative of building in-house solutions.

4. Customer-facing genAI will become increasingly prevalent.

16% of applications center on customer engagement & self-service capabilities.

Firms like ING, Wells Fargo, and Truist show that customer-facing genAI assistants are capable of powering millions of customer interactions. Customer-facing genAI deployment will accelerate as companies like Mastercard, Visa, and PayPal deploy applications centered on “agentic commerce,” where customers can autonomously shop and complete transactions with AI payments agents.

Looking forward, financial services firms need to develop a gameplan for how they will engage customers with agentic AI. The market opportunities for enterprise agents and copilots are growing, so customer-facing applications will quickly emerge.

5. Impact is now tangible, but success definitions remain elusive.

Only 30% of applications disclose quantitative tangible impact from deployment.

Most of the application sources analyzed lack disclosure of tangible impact (i.e., numbers, percentages, or figures to quantify effectiveness). Among the impact metrics that are available, the top-cited focus on operational considerations like call-handle times.

Looking forward, any financial services firm has the opportunity to define “what good genAI adoption looks like” across the sector. The lack of clear success definitions creates an opportunity for financial services firms to stand out among peers.

Methodology

We used CB Insights’ Business Graph — including data points like Dealmaking, Business Relationships, Earnings Transcripts, and Media Mentions — and third-party company releases to identify 100 real-world genAI applications across banking, insurance, and payments. These applications were disclosed between July 2023 and April 2025.

Then, using CB Insights’ Team of Agents, we analyzed these applications across 10 categories. Applications are detailed based on disclosure date, and are not exhaustive of a given company’s genAI initiatives. Applications and categorizations are not mutually exclusive or exhaustive of activity within their respective industries.

For information on reprint rights or other inquiries, please contact reprints@cbinsights.com.

The post 100 real-world applications of genAI across financial services and insurance appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Dealmaking fell this quarter by 7% to 804, as mega-rounds drove a substantial share (40%) of funding, and median deal size increased from $4M to $5M.

This quarter, the largest deal was Plaid‘s $575M round, reflecting rising demand for embedded finance and solutions that serve multiple fintech segments. 

Mega-round activity was heavily concentrated in the US, which claimed a record 65% share of mega-round deals.

Digital assets saw momentum on the exit front, highlighted by Circle’s IPO and two of the largest M&A deals involving blockchain companies: Coinbase’s acquisition of Deribit ($2.9B) and Stripe’s acquisition of Privy (undisclosed). 

Wealth tech and B2B fintech stood out as higher-momentum segments in Q2, with wealth tech funding seeing a dramatic uptick (up 171% QoQ to reach $1.9B), while B2B fintechs attracted several of the largest banking and payments equity rounds this quarter.

Download the full report to access comprehensive data and charts on the evolving state of fintech.

Key takeaways from the report include:

• Fintech sector recovery continues with 2 consecutive $10B quarters, which hasn’t happened since early 2023. This quarter’s largest investment went to fintech infrastructure leader Plaid at $575M. Despite these recent highs, funding remains well below 2022 levels.
• US-based fintechs command record share of global investment. The US achieved unprecedented dominance in Q2’25, capturing 65% of mega-rounds and 43% of all deals, both all-time highs. The US also captured 71% of mega-round funding and 60% of total fintech investment, reflecting a clear investor preference for US-based fintech opportunities.
• B2B fintech attracts the majority of large deals. B2B fintech companies brought in 60% of the largest payments investments and 50% of the largest banking rounds in Q2’25, led by Ramp‘s $200M Series D and Dojo‘s $190M private equity round. The pattern signals a growing appetite for business-facing fintech platforms over consumer-oriented applications.
• Digital wealth management is seeing a dramatic funding revival. Q2’25 marked a turning point for wealth tech with $1.9B in funding — nearly triple the Q1 number of $0.7B and the sector’s strongest performance in 3 years. Large deals like Addepar‘s $230M Series G round and Groww‘s $200M Series F drove both average and median deal sizes higher
  
• Fintech M&A activity remains elevated. Fintech M&A deals rose to 205 in Q2’25, following a significant increase in Q4’24. Digital assets continue to drive exit activity, with Circle going public at a $6.9B valuation in June, Stripe’s acquisition of Privy, and Coinbase’s $2.9B acquisition of Deribit.

We dive into the trends below.

Fintech sector shows signs of recovery with two consecutive $10B quarters

For the first time since early 2023, fintech funding has exceeded $10B for 2 consecutive quarters. 

Although Binance‘s $2B round propped up Q1’25, both Q1 and Q2 received 40% of total funding dollars from mega-rounds. Funding increased in most fintech subsectors in Q2, including capital markets, digital banking, digital lending, payments, and wealth tech. Notably the proportion of early-stage deals decreased across all sectors but one (digital lending) in 2025 YTD, indicating that investors are selectively funding mature companies across the fintech ecosystem.

The quarter’s largest investment went to fintech infrastructure leader Plaid, which raised $575M. New investors BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton led the round, which also included the company’s existing investors New Enterprise Associates and Ribbit Capital. 

While Plaid’s latest valuation of $6.1B declined by half since its Series D round in 2021, this reflects a broader correction in tech valuations. In fact, Plaid’s fundamentals remain strong with 18% headcount growth over the last 12 months and 25% revenue growth in 2024. Plaid also reported that with an increase in the number of companies and markets it serves, now more than 1 in 2 Americans have used its products. 

The second- and third-largest rounds of this quarter went to payroll fintech Rippling and Addepar, which is building investment portfolio management software. Late-stage deals across digital banking, capital markets, payments, and wealth tech also increased in Q2, suggesting current investment conditions favor established fintechs with proven business models.

Explore 23,000+ fintech companies

US-based fintechs command record share of global investment

The US achieved unprecedented dominance across a variety of metrics in Q2’25, reflecting increased momentum for US-based fintechs.

US-based companies captured 65% of mega-rounds in Q2’25 — the highest share on record. US fintechs also secured 71% of all mega-round funding.

This geographic concentration extended beyond mega-rounds: US-based fintechs received 60% of total fintech investment dollars and 43% of all deals, with the latter representing another all-time high. Meanwhile, median and average deal size have both risen this quarter, and the proportion of early stage deals has dropped in 2025 YTD from 72% to 66%. Investors are focused on mid-to-late-stage, US-based fintechs, which benefit from a mature market and established financial infrastructure that facilitates scaling.

Mid-year 2025, stabilizing interest rates and improved market conditions accompany institutional appetite for later-stage fintech investments. Yet fintech lags behind other sectors in the broader market recovery. Quarterly venture funding has rebounded to over $90B each over the last 3 quarters (heights not seen since 2022) while the increase in 2025 fintech funding remains modest. The US offers compelling advantages for risk-conscious investors, including mature fintechs with proven business models and a large addressable market for end consumers and businesses.

Explore 9,600+ US-based fintechs

B2B fintech solutions attract the majority of large deals

B2B fintech companies dominated in Q2’25, capturing 60% of the top 10 equity payments investments and 50% of the top 10 equity banking rounds.

This dominance signals a clear trend: businesses are increasingly hungry for digital-first financial tools that can streamline their operations, from automated spend management and corporate credit cards to comprehensive business banking platforms.

Major B2B deals included spend management leader Ramp’s $200M Series D at a record $16B valuation, payments platform Dojo’s $190M private equity round from Vitruvian Partners, and business banking provider Airwallex’s $150M Series F. Finom, which provides digital business banking for SMBs, obtained a $132M Series C round.

B2B-focused fintechs companies are rapidly scaling to meet demand — Ramp nearly doubled its headcount over the past 12 months, while its competitor Mercury more than doubled its valuation at the end of March in a $300M Series C round. Ramp launched treasury offerings in 2025, while Mercury Treasury recently upgraded with same-day liquidity. The introduction of new enterprise features, combined with funding rounds, headcount, and valuation increases, signals that these mid-to-late stage companies are expanding aggressively to capture B2B market share amid ample competition.

This shift towards B2B solutions suggests that the need for businesses to digitize their financial operations will drive fintech’s next growth phase, with investors betting on the larger deal sizes and stickier revenue models that business clients provide. Meanwhile, businesses accelerating digital transformation initiatives post-pandemic have created a large addressable market for financial software solutions that can demonstrate clear ROI through operational efficiency gains.

Explore the SMB fintech market map

Digital wealth management sees dramatic funding revival

Q2’25 marked a turning point for wealth tech, with the subsector raising $1.9B in funding, nearly triple the previous quarter’s total and the highest level since Q2’22. A handful of mega-rounds drove the increase, as deal count remained on par with last quarter. 

Notable deals included late-stage equity rounds to portfolio management platform Addepar ($230M), investment app Groww ($200M), digital broker Scalable Capital ($177M), RIA (registered investment advisor) platform Altruist ($152M), and personal finance toolkit Stash ($146M). These deals drove both average and median deal sizes higher across the sector.

Investors are gravitating toward wealth tech as AI unlocks new efficiencies in portfolio management, making investment services more scalable, cost-effective, and accessible to a broader market. Last month, Altruist acquired AI assistant Thyme to better serve financial advisors. Stash has earmarked their $146M round to support AI capabilities, including its consumer financial advice platform Money Coach AI. Addepar acquired AI workflow platform Arcus in May. Among the top 10 wealth tech companies by Mosaic, our proprietary startup health score, half have rolled out AI tools, earmarked new funding for AI capabilities, or made AI-related acquisitions in 2025 YTD.

Track 2,400+ companies in the Wealth Tech Expert Collection

M&A activity remains elevated

Fintech M&A deals rose to 205 in Q2’25, following a significant increase in Q4’24.

Notably, two of the most prominent M&A deals this quarter went to blockchain companies. The second largest fintech acquisition in Q2’25 was Coinbase’s $2.9B acquisition of crypto derivatives exchange Deribit. Meanwhile, Stripe acquired Privy, which provides white-label crypto wallet infrastructure, for an undisclosed sum in June. This follows its Q4’24 purchase of stablecoin company Bridge for $1.1B.

Major stablecoin issuer Circle went public in June at a $6.9B valuation, its stock quickly skyrocketing in value. 

Other important exits this quarter involved neobanks and B2B tech, which have enjoyed momentum in 2025 to date:

The largest IPO in Q2’25 was neobank Chime at a $9.8B valuation based on outstanding shares. Like Plaid, Chime’s valuation represented a significant decrease from its high of $25B in 2021, attributable to broader market correction.

Xero’s $3B acquisition of accounts payable and receivable solution Melio was the largest of the quarter, tying into the surge in B2B interest.

Search recently funded fintech companies with high M&A probabilities

MORE FINTECH RESEARCH FROM CB INSIGHTS

• The SMB fintech market map
• The stablecoin market map
• State of Fintech Q1’25 report

The post State of Fintech Q2’25 Report appeared first on CB Insights Research.

According to the World Bank, 90% of businesses worldwide qualify as small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs — also known as small- and medium-sized businesses, or SMBs), and they account for about half of global GDP. But in a Federal Reserve survey from 2023, only 34% of US-based small businesses said they currently accept digital or mobile payments, pointing to just one of the many openings for digitization in the US and abroad. 

Financial institutions and private tech companies alike are stepping up to the plate. 

Several major banks and leaders are expanding their small business services, including: PayPal, which is growing its ecosystem of SMB services; Fiserv, which is expecting revenue to double in the next 2 years for its small-merchant POS system, Clover; and Mastercard, which launched 10 new small business programs over the last year.

Meanwhile, the landscape of private tech companies developing financial solutions for SMBs continues to evolve. In the market map below, we identify 105 tech companies offering fintech tailored to SMBs across 14 different markets. We organized markets by major divisions in financial operations:

• HR: These solutions help small businesses manage employee benefits and payments. 
• Payments: Vendors in this category assist companies in managing payments both within and outside their business, integrating payment acceptance and processing into customer-facing platforms, and overseeing expenses. 
• Lending: These platforms and tools enable small businesses to access loans and other forms of financing for business growth.
• Banking: These companies help finance teams manage their businesses’ liquidity and track real-time cash positions.

Please click to enlarge.

To identify players for this market map, we included startups with a CB Insights Mosaic score (a proprietary measure of private company health and growth) of 400 or greater that raised funding since January 1, 2023. We then filtered that list based on whether companies have offerings targeting small and medium businesses. Categories are not mutually exclusive and are not intended to be exhaustive.

Key takeaways

1. Investors have concentrated SMB fintech funding on foundational solutions, like embedded payments infrastructure and spend management. Financial services infrastructure has established itself as a must-have for SMBs: embedded payments tools ($9.6B), spend management platforms ($3.5B), and enterprise cross-border payments ($3.4B) have collectively raised 77% of all funding across markets on the map since 2020. This dynamic highlights the need for SMBs to establish essential financial systems before layering new technologies on top.
2. Investors and financial institutions should focus on solutions that flexibly integrate with existing systems. Small businesses are willing to cherry-pick the solutions that will drive the highest ROI, rather than overhauling their entire tech stack. Within payments markets, accounts payable (AP) automation companies have attracted 3x more funding than AR automation companies ($2.2B vs. $733M) and, perhaps more significantly, more than 6x as many partnerships (287 vs. 44). These indicators not only point to AP automation’s clearer ROI for SMB users (who may have more payables to process than receivables), but also to SMBs’ selectiveness about where and when they invest in technology. For the tech companies themselves, emphasizing a range of integration partners will help prove the value and ease of adopting their solutions.
3. The growth in digital-native SMBs is driving early-stage growth and valuations for tech-enabled borrowing. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the 43 deals for revenue-based financing platforms since 2020 have been early-stage. The high share of early-stage activity suggests that there are still numerous entry points for disruptive fintechs, especially as the companies they serve — such as e-commerce, SaaS, and digital brands — continue to evolve. At the same time, investors are placing a high premium on revenue-based financing solutions: multiple SMB-focused companies in the market (Wayflyer, Pipe, and Clearco) are unicorns, compared to only 1 in the market for invoice finance (C2FO).

Market descriptions

HR

Earned wage access (EWA) platforms

The earned wage access (EWA) platforms market provides solutions for employees to access their earned wages before scheduled paydays, addressing financial stress and reducing reliance on high-cost credit options. These platforms integrate with existing payroll systems to verify earned wages and facilitate immediate transfers to employees’ accounts. Many providers also offer additional financial wellness tools such as budgeting assistance, savings features, and financial education resources. EWA platforms serve various industries including retail, healthcare, and manufacturing, typically targeting HR managers and payroll administrators seeking to improve employee retention and productivity.

Benefits administration

The benefits administration market provides solutions to help human resources teams manage their employee benefits programs. These platforms look across health insurance, wellness programs, and more. Providers often have features to support employee enrollment and participation analytics. The market is driven by the need for employers to attract and retain top talent, comply with government regulations, and provide a competitive and targeted benefits package.

Cash forecasting software

The cash forecasting software market uses historical data, financial algorithms, and predictive analytics to forecast future cash flows accurately. Cash forecasting software helps businesses improve cash flow visibility, identify potential cash gaps or surpluses, and mitigate liquidity risks. These solutions typically integrate with existing ERP systems, accounting software, and banking platforms to aggregate financial data. The platforms also facilitate scenario modeling, enabling organizations to simulate different financial scenarios and assess the impact on cash flows.

Enterprise cross-border payments platforms

The enterprise cross-border payments platforms market enables businesses to send and collect payments globally. Companies in this market offer currency exchange solutions that help users monitor exchange rates and hedge currency risk. Some companies also provide specialized solutions for different industries. In addition to enterprise solutions, many providers in this market also offer consumer-specific solutions.

Accounts receivable (AR) automation

The accounts receivable (AR) automation market streamlines invoicing and payment collection processes. Vendors provide APIs and software development kits that allow companies to embed accounts receivable functionalities into their enterprise resource planning software, customer relationship management systems, and other digital platforms. The tools allow automated invoicing, payment reminders and processing, cash application, credit management, and more.

Spend management platforms

The spend management platforms market enables businesses to efficiently manage and control their expenditures through integrated software solutions, including virtual corporate cards, expense management systems, procurement software, and budget tracking tools. Vendors use APIs and cloud-based platforms to integrate these solutions into existing financial and operational systems, allowing for real-time visibility into spending patterns, automated approval workflows, and enhanced compliance controls. These platforms streamline financial processes, reduce administrative burdens, and provide AI-powered insights, helping organizations optimize budgets, negotiate better terms with suppliers, and achieve cost savings.

Embedded payments infrastructure

The embedded payments infrastructure market provides API-based solutions that enable companies to integrate payment processing into non-banking digital platforms without building the infrastructure from scratch. These solutions use APIs and software development kits to embed payment functionalities into software applications, websites, IoT devices, and digital ecosystems. Companies in this market offer features including simplified integration, fraud detection, subscription management, and customized security parameters. The technology primarily serves e-commerce, SaaS platforms, marketplaces, and financial institutions looking to enhance user experience and monetize transactions.

Buy now pay later (BNPL) — B2B payments

The buy now pay later (BNPL) — B2B payments market offers flexible financing options for businesses to enhance their purchasing power and manage their working capital and cash flow by acquiring goods or services immediately and paying for them in installments over time. BNPL solutions in the B2B market provide streamlined application processes, quick approvals, and transparent terms for businesses to make purchases and manage their payments efficiently. These solutions typically include online platforms, embedded finance tools, or integrated payment systems that enable point-of-sale financing decisions. Key features include flexible payment terms, automated credit decisioning, and integration with existing procurement and financial systems to provide businesses with tailored payment plans.

Accounts payable (AP) automation

The accounts payable automation market allows businesses to streamline and automate invoice processing and payment activities. Vendors provide platforms that integrate with existing enterprise resource planning systems and accounting software through APIs and software development kits. These platforms automate invoice capture and matching, data extraction, approval workflows, and payment processing, reducing manual tasks and minimizing errors. This integration improves operational efficiency, enhances cash flow management, strengthens vendor relationships, and supports compliance with financial regulations.

Lending

Lending marketplaces

The lending marketplaces market includes online platforms that connect lenders and borrowers through digital technologies. These platforms use data analytics, automation, and AI to streamline the lending process and provide access to credit for individuals and small businesses who may be underserved by traditional financial institutions. The market serves both borrowers seeking competitive loan options and lenders looking to expand their customer base and optimize lending rates. These platforms typically offer features such as loan comparison tools, financial education resources, simplified application processes, and tailored services for specific customer segments.

Revenue-based financing platforms

The revenue-based financing platforms market offers an alternative funding approach where businesses exchange a percentage of future revenues for upfront capital without traditional equity dilution or fixed-interest debt. These platforms use proprietary algorithms and data analytics to evaluate financial health, growth potential, and creditworthiness to determine funding amounts and repayment terms. Primary users include e-commerce companies, SaaS businesses, and digital-native ventures with predictable revenue streams. Key features include automated underwriting processes, flexible repayment schedules tied to business performance, and rapid funding decisions. These solutions enable businesses to fund marketing, inventory, product development, and operations while maintaining ownership control.

Trade & supply chain finance

The trade & supply chain finance market facilitates loans and financial instruments for businesses engaged in global trade, helping them optimize cash flows and mitigate risks associated with cross-border transactions. Vendors offer digital platforms with financing solutions such as letters of credit, invoice financing, and guarantees, leveraging technologies like blockchain, AI, and APIs to streamline operations. These solutions integrate with supply chain management systems and banking ecosystems to improve transparency, enhance operational efficiency, and accelerate financial settlements, enabling businesses to strengthen trade relationships and expand globally.

Invoice finance

The invoice finance market provides technology solutions that enable businesses to access funds against their unpaid invoices. Through APIs and user-friendly software, these platforms connect companies needing immediate cash flow with funders willing to advance payments on outstanding invoices. Solutions range from dedicated invoice financing platforms to broader financial management systems with invoice finance capabilities. These technologies simplify invoice processing, enhance transparency, and expedite funding timelines while reducing paperwork burden. The market includes factoring services, invoice discounting platforms, early payment programs, and integrated financial operation systems that facilitate better cash flow management.

Treasury & cash management solutions

The treasury & cash management solutions market provides software and platforms for treasurers, CFOs, and finance teams to manage liquidity and gain real-time cash position visibility. These solutions connect directly to bank accounts, aggregate financial data, and deliver actionable insights in a centralized platform. Key capabilities include payment automation, cash flow forecasting, fraud protection, and bank connectivity APIs. The market helps organizations streamline financial operations, reduce manual processes, and enhance decision-making through automated transaction tagging and AI-powered analytics.

RELATED CB INSIGHTS RESEARCH

• State of Fintech Q1’25 Report
• The future of the customer journey: AI agents take control of the buying process
• Shopify’s next move: How the e-commerce giant is evolving into a full-stack platform for commerce and media

For information on reprint rights or other inquiries, please contact reprints@cbinsights.com.

The post The SMB fintech market map appeared first on CB Insights Research.

But one deal — a $2B minority round for crypto exchange Binance — made up nearly 20% of the funding. And global dealmaking declined for the fourth straight quarter.

Amid the mixed bag in funding, though, several areas of momentum stand out: AI, crypto, and digital banking.

Download the full report to access comprehensive data and charts on the evolving state of fintech. 

Key takeaways from the report include:

• Fintech funding gets a big boost from Binance. Funding to fintech companies increased 18% in Q1’25, its biggest jump in 3 quarters. The metric topped $10B for the first time in 2 years, propped up by 1 big deal: crypto exchange Binance’s $2B corporate minority round. Without that deal, Q1’25 funding would have trailed Q4’24.
• AI is gathering steam in fintech. AI companies raised a record 16% of all fintech deals in Q1’25. AI’s steady increase in deal share follows trends in the broader venture market. AI companies’ share of fintech deals has more than doubled since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022.
• Crypto is resurging with investors. More than half (52%) of the biggest early-stage deals went to companies developing digital asset solutions, including blockchain tech, crypto exchanges, payments platforms, security, and more. The quarter also saw a new crypto banking unicorn.
• Digital banking remains resilient. Despite funding and deals declining in Q1’25, digital banking companies have the highest average CB Insights Mosaic score, which measures business health and growth potential, among all fintech verticals. Challenger banks are fueling the high scores: 6 of the 7 digital banking companies with Mosaic scores of more than 900 fall into the category. 

We dive into the trends below.

Fintech funding gets a big boost from Binance

Funding to fintech companies increased 18% in Q1’25 — its biggest jump in 3 quarters — and topped $10B for the first time in 2 years. 

But one-fifth of the funding came from 1 deal: crypto exchange Binance’s $2B corporate minority round from Abu Dhabi-based AI investor MGX. 

The massive round was the largest ever investment in a crypto company. Along with other finserv leaders’ activity — such as Stripe’s October 2024 acquisition of stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1B — the deal is a marker of growing institutional interest in digital currencies.

Meanwhile, dealmaking fell by 3% to 777 to mark a fourth straight quarter of decline.

Overall, big rounds made up a larger share of fintech funding in the quarter. Mega-rounds (deals of $100M+) made up 44% of all funding, their highest quarterly share since Q1’23. That said, the total number of mega-rounds in the quarter still declined to 14 in Q1’25, down from 22 in Q4’24.

Mega-round recipients included a mid-stage digital bank (Mercury), a late-stage buy now, pay later provider (Tabby), and an early-stage credit card issuer (Plata). Investors also backed substantial rounds in digital currencies: in addition to Binance, mega-rounds went to an early-stage DeFi player (ZENMEV) and a mid-stage crypto wallet (Phantom).

AI is gathering steam in fintech

In line with the broader venture market, AI companies make up a growing share of fintech dealmaking. 

AI companies that offer fintech solutions raised 16% (122) of all fintech deals in Q1’25. AI companies’ share of fintech deals has more than doubled since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022.

AI’s share of total fintech funding also ticked up in Q1’25, to 17%. The biggest deal to an AI-powered fintech company was a $200M round for home equity line of credit provider Figure, which is using AI to speed up loan originations and other processes. 

Explore 1,200+ AI fintech companies

Crypto is resurging with investors

Investors’ interest in crypto jumped in Q1’25.

Along with significant rounds for several mid- and late-stage digital currency companies, investors also poured money into early-stage crypto: 52% of the biggest seed and Series A deals in the quarter went to companies developing digital asset solutions — up from just 24% of the top early-stage deals in Q4’24.

Meanwhile, Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum was one of the quarter’s 3 new fintech unicorns. 

The strength in crypto investment across metrics (mega-rounds, early-stage deals, unicorns) sets the stage for blockchain to play a larger role long-term across financial services like payments and investment. 

Track 8K+ companies in the Blockchain Expert Collection

Digital banking remains resilient

Despite a quarter when digital banking funding and deals both declined, digital banking companies remain resilient.

Among major fintech verticals, digital banking companies have the highest average CB Insights Mosaic score — which measures private-company health and growth potential — across all fintech verticals. 

Challenger banks are fueling the high scores: 6 of the 7 digital banking companies with Mosaic scores of 900+ fall into the category. 

This includes US-based Mercury, which raised the second-largest equity deal in Q1’25: a $300M Series C round from investors including Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. The company, which provides business banking, says the new funding will support acquisitions and expansion.

Other high-Mosaic challenger banks that raised funding in Q1’25 are establishing themselves in market niches that have proven more difficult for traditional banks. For instance, Varo focuses on serving the underbanked, and raised a $29M Series G round in February 2025. Moniepoint, which is based in Nigeria, raised a $10M Series C-II round from Visa in January and is building payment and banking networks in Africa. 

Track 850+ companies in the Digital Banking Expert Collection

MORE FINTECH RESEARCH FROM CB INSIGHTS

• State of Fintech 2024 report
• Our 6 predictions for the insurance space in 2025
• The future of the customer journey: AI agents take control of the buying process
• The generative AI in financial services market map

For information on reprint rights or other inquiries, please contact reprints@cbinsights.com.

The post State of Fintech Q1’25 Report appeared first on CB Insights Research.

However, some positive signals are emerging, including growing deal sizes and a pickup in M&A, with a focus on cybersecurity capabilities.

Download the full report to access comprehensive data and charts on the evolving state of fintech across sectors, geographies, and more.

Key takeaways from the report include:

• Fintech dealmaking continues downward trend in 2024. Annual fintech deals and funding both dropped to 7-year lows in 2024. While deals dropped by 17% YoY to a total of 3,580, funding fell by 20% to $33.7B.
• One positive signal: bigger deals. The median fintech deal size increased to $4M in 2024 — marking a 33% jump YoY — with deal sizes rising across every major global region. Across fintech sectors, the biggest jump occurred in banking, where the median deal size rose by 70% YoY to reach $8.5M. Though fintech saw fewer deals overall in 2024, the increase in deal sizes suggests that investors are writing bigger checks for companies with compelling growth potential.
• M&A activity is also picking up. Fintech M&A exits jumped 24% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) to 189 in Q4’24, with Stripe’s $1.1B purchase of stablecoin platform Bridge marking the quarter’s largest deal. Overall, fintech saw a total of 664 M&A exits in 2024 (up 6% YoY) as financial services companies sought to diversify their capabilities and build full-service platforms.
• Mature banking companies are catching the eyes of investors. Banking saw mid- and late-stage deals rise to 38% of its total deal volume in 2024 (vs. 21% in 2023), outpacing the 4 percentage point increase in fintech more broadly. Uncertainty about new banking technology and regulatory volatility — particularly among banking-as-a-service players — is likely driving investors to more proven solutions.
• Payments tech ends 2024 as a bright spot. Five of the top 10 equity deals in Q4’24 went to companies building payments solutions, from mobile payments apps to cross-border payments enablement tools to platforms digitizing B2B payments. This concentration of large deals within payments tech reflects the ongoing push to digitize commerce and business exchanges. 

We dive into the trends below.

Fintech dealmaking continues downward trend in 2024

In 2024, annual fintech funding and dealmaking both decreased YoY, hitting 7-year lows.

However, there are signs that the fintech market is steadying. The annual decline in funding was fintech’s smallest in 3 years. Meanwhile, at the quarterly level, funding rebounded to close the year strong, increasing 11% QoQ to reach $8.5B in Q4’24.

One positive signal: bigger deals

While there are fewer fintech deals overall, deal sizes are climbing. 

Following 2 consecutive years of decline, the median deal size in fintech jumped 33% YoY in 2024.

Across fintech sectors, banking saw the biggest jump in median deal size in 2024 — a 70% YoY increase to $8.5M. 

This shift reflects increased investor selectivity in the current market. Companies that pass more rigorous due diligence are attracting larger investments, even as overall deal volume remains constrained.

CBI customers: Track 20K+ fintech companies

M&A activity is also picking up

Fintech M&A deals jumped 24% QoQ in Q4’24. 

US-based companies captured 8 of the largest 10 deals, including the top 5. Stripe’s $1.1B acquisition of Bridge was the largest of the quarter.

The quarterly increase points to broader stirrings of an M&A resurgence: for the year, fintech M&A exits rose by 6% YoY to 664 deals in 2024. 

Acquirers are boosting capabilities across functions. For instance, Stripe’s purchase of stablecoin platform Bridge gives the company a stronger standing in the reinvigorated market for digital assets and boosts its cross-border payment capabilities. The deal also emphasizes stablecoins’ growing role in driving accessibility and stability within crypto’s current wave.

Bolstering cybersecurity was also a focus for acquirers in Q4’24, pointing to financial services companies’ push to integrate fraud detection in their product offerings. For example, in November 2024, IT company N-able bought Adlumin, which deploys its solutions to financial firms, to enhance its cybersecurity capabilities. In October, Socure — specializing in digital identity verification — acquired Effectiv to enhance its AI-driven fraud detection capabilities.

Search recently funded fintech companies with high M&A probabilities

Mature banking companies are catching the eyes of investors

Early-stage deals made up a larger share of fintech investment activity in 2022-23, suggesting that investors shifted their focus toward nascent innovation requiring smaller capital commitments during the market slowdown.

The trend shifted in 2024, particularly in the banking sector. While mid- and late-stage deal share rose by 4 percentage points YoY across fintech broadly, it jumped 17 percentage points in banking. 

See 140+ high-potential mid- and late-stage startups

Recent volatility in banking-as-a-service — such as Synapse’s bankruptcy in April — and intensified regulatory scrutiny are likely driving investors to more proven solutions.

Payments tech ends 2024 as a bright spot

Five of the 10 biggest fintech deals in Q4’24 went to payments companies, capping a relatively strong quarter for the sector. Despite a YoY decline, funding to payments companies rose by 20% QoQ to $1.8B in Q4’24.

Argentina-based mobile payments company Ualá secured a $300M Series E in Q4’24, tying home equity release firm Splitero for the largest round of the quarter.

Of the top payments deals, two went to companies automating accounts payable and other aspects of B2B payments (Melio and ASAAS). The opportunity to digitize B2B payments continues to expand, especially since businesses in many geographies still rely on manual processes.

B2B payments tech market ranking

Related resources from CB Insights:

• State of Venture 2024 Report
• 15 tech trends to watch closely in 2025
• Fintech 100: The most promising fintech startups of 2024
• The generative AI in financial services market map
• Prioritizing B2B payments tech: How 9 tech-driven markets stack up across maturity and momentum

For information on reprint rights or other inquiries, please contact reprints@cbinsights.com.

The post State of Fintech 2024 Report appeared first on CB Insights Research.

For companies interested in the future of fintech, these startups — working on everything from deploying novel AI solutions across the landscape to expanding access to financial services — should be on your radar for partnership and investment opportunities.

The list primarily includes early- and mid-stage startups driving innovation across fintech. Our research team picked winning companies based on CB Insights datasets, including deal activity, industry partnerships, team strength, investor strength, employee headcount, and proprietary Commercial Maturity and Mosaic scores. We also dug into Analyst Briefings submitted directly to us by startups.

Please click to enlarge.

Here is a summary of the 2024 Fintech 100 cohort highlights:

• The 100 winners include 13 wealth management companies, 11 in embedded finance, and 10 in insurance.
• $7.2B in equity funding raised over time, including more than $2B in 2024 so far (as of 10/23/2024).
• Nearly 50% are early-stage companies (primarily seed/angel or Series A).
• 52 companies from outside the United States, across 23 countries on 6 continents. This includes 17 companies from 11 emerging and developing economies.
• 850+ business relationships since 2022, including with industry leaders like Mastercard, State Street, and Flipkart.

Companies are categorized by their primary focus area and client base. Categories in the market map are not mutually exclusive.

CB Insights customers can interact with the entire Fintech 100 list here and view a detailed category breakdown using the Expert Collection.

2024 FINTECH 100 COHORT HIGHLIGHTS

Funding and valuations

The 2024 Fintech 100 winners have raised $7.2B across 370+ disclosed equity deals to date (as of 10/23/2024).

Gaming payments company Coda Payments and rent rewards company Bilt Rewards lead all winners in disclosed equity funding (with $715M and $560M in funding, respectively). 

In 2024 so far, this year’s winners have raised just over $2B across 72 disclosed equity deals.

Three winners have raised mega-rounds ($100M+ deals) in 2024 so far: 

• Bilt Rewards — $200M Series C, $150M Series C – II
• Akur8 — $120M Series C
• FundGuard — $100M Series C

Just 5 companies on this year’s list have reached unicorn status (a $1B+ valuation). Amid the broader venture slowdown, just one winner has hit unicorn status in 2024 so far: Pennylane, a France-based financial management and accounting platform for businesses.

Customers: explore all Fintech 100 deals

Stage breakdown and commercial maturity

Nearly half — 48 — of this year’s Fintech 100 winners are early-stage companies (primarily seed/angel or Series A).

More than 60% of the companies on the list (62) have a CB Insights Commercial Maturity score — which measures a private company’s current ability to compete for customers or serve as a partner — of 4, or Scaling. This indicates they are gaining market traction and growing clients, partners, headcount, and revenue. 

Twenty-six winners have a score of 3, or Deploying, which means they have validated ideas and are beginning commercial distribution.

Top investors

Plug and Play Ventures leads all venture capital (VC) firms, including CVC firms, in the number of winners backed. The 2024 Fintech 100 companies in its portfolio operate across financial management and accounting (Finally), capital markets (FundGuard), payment acceptance (AiFi, Fintoc), banking (Tuum), wealth management (Boldin), and payroll (WorkPay). 

Meanwhile, General Catalyst leads in the total number of investments in the 2024 Fintech 100, as it has invested 13 times across 6 companies. It has invested in Bilt Rewards, financial management & accounting firm Collective, alternative credit scoring company Nova Credit, cross-border payments platform Finom, student loan management platform Summer, and AI agent Powder.

Geographic distribution

Just over half (52) of this year’s Fintech 100 winners are based outside of the United States. The United Kingdom leads all non-US countries with 12 winners, and Canada and Singapore are tied for second with 6 companies each. 

Seventeen companies on this year’s list come from 11 emerging and developing economies (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kenya, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Thailand, and Uruguay). Many of these winners are focused on solutions driving financial inclusion and accessibility for groups like small businesses and consumers building their credit.

Headcount growth

This year’s Fintech 100 winners collectively employ more than 18,000 people. Median year-over-year headcount growth is more than 30%.

Bilt leads all winners with $3.1M in equity funding per employee. Embedded finance company Brim Financial, blockchain company Fnality, and Coda Payments are tied for second with $1.6M per employee.

Company health

Eighty-three of this year’s winning companies have a CB Insights Mosaic score — a proprietary measure of private company health and growth potential — of at least 700 out of 1,000 (as of 10/23/24). Compared to all private companies — fintechs or otherwise — with Mosaic scores, these 83 winners rank in the top 4% by Mosaic score. 

Bilt Rewards leads the cohort with a score of 952. Nova Credit and Arta are tied for second with 883.

Winners deploy AI across a variety of use cases

AI’s dominance in the venture market and broader tech conversations is reflected in this year’s Fintech 100 cohort. 

Several winners have developed AI solutions to automate financial services operations. For example, Alkymi and Saphyre are among the handful of companies using AI to analyze and extract data from financial documents.

But winners are also deploying AI within specific financial services sectors, including embedded finance, compliance, and insurance.

For instance, Gynger uses AI and data analytics to quickly approve and underwrite financing. The company is backed by PayPal Ventures and Google’s AI-focused venture arm Gradient Ventures. 

Meanwhile, Norm Ai offers AI agents for compliance teams, enabling them to assess content or actions against regulatory requirements. The company raised a $27M Series A round in June 2024 from investors including Bain Capital Ventures and Citi Ventures.

Delos Insurance Solutions, on the other hand, issues property insurance and analyzes satellite data using AI to identify areas with greater wildfire risk. Its founders’ backgrounds in the space industry inform their approach to data gathering via satellite.

Fintechs gear solutions toward financial inclusion and accessibility

Many of this year’s winners are focused on making financial services and technology more accessible to growing customer segments. 

Small businesses are a focus worldwide. This year’s list includes solutions like Sequoia Capital– and Founders Fund-backed Found, which offers banking for self-employed people and small business owners. Meanwhile, Pakistan-based NayaPay offers financial management for consumers as well as small businesses. Singapore-based YouTrip also has both B2C and B2B platforms for cross-border payments, focusing its B2B services on small businesses in southeast Asia. 

Companies in this year’s cohort are also targeting consumers building their financial profiles and wealth. US-based MAJORITY allows individuals to get banked in the US without social security numbers. OTO, meanwhile, offers loans for electric bike and scooter purchases in India. Banks are hesitant to finance the purchases despite strong government support for the vehicles, so the massive consumer market is turning to fintechs.

Meanwhile, companies like Bilt Rewards and CheQ are helping consumers manage their credit and build toward major purchases in different ways. Bilt converts rent payments into points that can be redeemed toward a down payment on a home, and it can also send renters’ on-time payment reports to credit bureaus. 

In India, where credit cards have lower penetration but are growing quickly, CheQ helps consumers pay off all of their credit cards and earn rewards on one digital platform. It aims to support users who are new to the credit system and offers free credit reports and tips on managing credit. The company recently announced a partnership with India’s e-commerce giant Flipkart to enable consumers to earn extra points on purchases during Flipkart’s sale event.

The post Fintech 100: The most promising fintech startups of 2024 appeared first on CB Insights Research.

After nearly a decade of big tech companies venturing into launching their own financial products, the major players have now pulled back. Most have shifted to roles as tech providers, broadly supporting advances in financial infrastructure.

Amazon and Google stand out in this area:

• Amazon is embedding itself in more financial transactions via partnerships, investments, and acquisitions. It’s using these relationships to reach customers across more geographies and a wider range of services. 
• Google has shifted away from providing financial services and instead is connecting its existing platforms to others’ financial offerings. The company is also investing and partnering to enable digital-first financial tools.

We mined CB Insights data on Amazon’s and Google’s investments, acquisitions, and partnerships, as well as patents and earnings transcripts, from January 2021 to July 2024 to explore how the companies are reengineering their fintech strategies.

Download the full report to see where they are making moves.

This report uses CB Insights datasets like investments, acquisitions, business relationships, earnings call insights, patents, and more. Learn more about our data here.

The post Big Tech in Fintech: How Amazon and Google are battling to own transactions appeared first on CB Insights Research.