The fintech ecosystem has never been more dynamic—or more fragmented. With thousands of startups disrupting traditional finance, established banks racing to innovate, and new partnership models reshaping how money moves globally, the industry has reached an inflection point where distinguishing genuine innovation from market noise has become critical. By creating this global benchmark, The Money Awards help clarify which innovations are gaining meaningful traction and which companies are positioned to shape the industry’s direction.
Against this backdrop, Money Awards finalists, ranging from startups to industry veterans, represent the cutting edge of financial innovation. Many of the world’s most promising fintech companies — from AI-powered credit builders like Bloom Credit to stablecoin-powered payments platforms like Cenoa — are pioneering new approaches that blend advanced technology with traditional financial expertise.
Download the full Money Awards Finalist Spotlight to explore analyses of all 60+ companies, and read on for 3 key takeaways and a breakdown of our methodology.
In the following brief, we used CB Insights data, including Mosaic, our proprietary score for company health, as well as Business Relationships and Hiring Insights to highlight a selection of Money Awards finalists that are driving some of the dominant trends reshaping the fintech landscape. The trends in focus include the following:
- AI-driven solutions are dominating
- B2B fintech maintains strong momentum
- Fintechs are deploying new models to serve emerging markets
1. AI-driven solutions are dominating
Funding to AI in the first half of 2025 alone surpassed 2024’s record full-year total. As of September 2025, full-year funding is projected to exceed $200B.
Across banking and payments, AI is increasingly becoming a strategic necessity in financial services. Since nearly a quarter of use cases in deployment focus on cross-functional applications today, fintechs offering specialized AI agents are a key force for competitive differentiation.
- CredCore provides AI agents to support lenders and borrowers in the debt capital markets sector, currently supporting more than $650B AUM. The company more than doubled its headcount following its $16M Series A round in February.
- Mastercard launched its Agent Pay offering earlier this year to support AI-powered commerce. The solution enables AI agents to make payments on behalf of users. The payments processing leader’s stock price reached an all-time high last month.
- Taktile received $54M in Series B funding in February from backers including Y Combinator. Its mosaic score has increased 27% in the last year to 919, placing it in the top 1% of all private companies. The fintech released new AI agents for SMB credit underwriting earlier this month.
From capital markets to agentic commerce, finalists prove that specialized AI tools provide operational efficiency gains and sustainable competitive advantages.
2. B2B fintech maintains strong momentum
B2B fintech is rapidly gaining momentum as incumbents and startups alike recognize massive digitization opportunities across business banking, payments, and financial infrastructure. In Q2, more than half of the top fintech equity rounds both in banking and payments went to B2B companies.
Incumbents and startups alike are introducing B2B offerings and honing in on business banking needs to capitalize on this lucrative opportunity. Meanwhile, modern technology including stablecoins, real-time payments, and automated compliance tools are enabling this transformation at scale.
The Money Awards finalists showcase retail fintechs successfully shifting their focus to serving other companies:
- Revolut, known worldwide for its consumer banking services, revamped its business interface via its RB5 offering. The fintech enjoyed 40% headcount growth in the past year, achieving its highest ever valuation earlier this month at $75B.
- Yellow Card, which has evolved from a consumer crypto exchange to B2B stablecoin infrastructure, has enjoyed great momentum as a result. In October 2024, it raised a $33M Series C round with participation from Coinbase.
- Greenlight + U.S. Bank: U.S. Bank became the first financial institution to provide Greenlight’s debit card and money management tools to clients directly through its mobile app. Subsequent partnerships with several financial institutions have since established Greenlight as a B2B2C provider.
Award finalists are reaping the rewards of both higher revenue per customer and reduced customer acquisition costs compared to direct consumer models, while serving a very real need for business-focused finance technology.
3. Digital banking empowers underserved populations
As digital platforms expand the potential for access to modern banking in emerging markets, fintechs aim to close gaps left by traditional providers and promote financial inclusion.
According to CB Insights’ industry-wide analysis, digital banking companies maintain the highest average CB Insights Mosaic score (tracking at roughly 550 as of September 2025) among all fintech verticals, with challenger banks leading efforts to serve underbanked populations across the globe.
The Money Awards finalists in the Banking category demonstrate innovative approaches to engaging underbanked populations that are receiving real market traction:
- Nubank, whose market capitalization hit an all-time high last week, made Pix instant payments available to Brazilians directly via WhatsApp. The company has strong market penetration in underbanked regions, with over 100 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.
- LTS Ventures has launched digital platforms for more than 1,000 community banks across Laos, extending reach into underserved rural areas. The company combines blockchain-backed technology with AI loan decisioning to bring emerging fintech to over 250,000 customers in Laos.
- JazzCash, which offers branchless banking for consumers and businesses, enjoyed 69% headcount growth within the past year. The company, which has prioritized rollout in underserved areas, serves over 43 million registered users across Pakistan with $4.6B gross transaction value.
Finalists consistently demonstrate that serving underserved populations represents both social impact and measurable business opportunity.
Methodology
The Money Awards Jury
What makes The Money Awards truly stand apart is the caliber and diversity of its international jury. Drawn from across the fintech ecosystem, the expert panel brings together C-level decision-makers, founders, investors, and the specialists working on the frontlines of innovation. This unique mix ensures that recognition isn’t just handed down from the top, but validated by those with both strategic vision and hands-on expertise. It’s a jury that reflects the industry in its entirety, by the industry, for the industry, and is best placed to identify the work that genuinely moves the needle.
The judging process itself is deliberately rigorous, independent, and transparent, ensuring credibility at every stage. With over 40 global leaders scrutinising submissions, these awards act as a true third-party seal of excellence. Combined with Money20/20’s deep connection to the worldwide fintech community, winners are not just celebrated on stage, they are endorsed by the very people shaping the future of money.
CB Insights’ Predictive Intelligence
We spotlighted Money2020’s 60+ Money Awards finalists across startups, banking, payments, and partnerships using CB Insights’ predictive intelligence — including data points like funding activity, Mosaic Scores, partnership relationships, and Commercial Maturity ratings.
Analysis incorporates broader CB Insights fintech market data and research, including 100 real-world applications of genAI across financial services and insurance, State of AI Q2’25, State of Fintech Q2’25, State of Fintech Q1’25, and the AI and Digital Banking Expert Collections.