17. Algomi — a social network for the bond market
Founded: 2012
Founders: Stu Taylor, Usman Khan, Robert Howes, Michael Schmidt
Headquartered: Fenchurch Street, London
Funding to date: £7.7 million ($11.8 million)
Founded by former UBS bankers, Algomi has created a social network for the bond market that connects those who want to sell with those who want to buy.
Prior to Algomi, this was done through speculative phone calls wasting a lot of time. It's service is currently used by nine banks, including some of the world's biggest.
The startup, founded in 2012, has offices in New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Chicago, and is planning a major push into the US.
16. Currency Cloud — international payment processing
Founded: 2012
Founders: Nigel Verdon
Headquartered: London
Funding to date: £22.7 million ($35 million)
Currency Cloud software plugs into businesses' systems and lets them send money internationally in a simpler and cheaper way than banks do.
Many other fintech startups like TransferWise and Azimo use the service and Currency Cloud processed $10 billion (£6.32 billion) worth of payments last year alone, across 212 countries.
15. DueDil — financial information provider
Founded: 2011
Founders: Damian Kimmelman
Headquartered: London
Funding to date: £14 million ($22 million)
Dubbed "Britain's answer to Bloomberg", DueDil's platform pulls together data from thousands of sources including company websites, financial filings, news reports, registry data, trademarks, and country court judgments. Then it crunches through all this and presents it in an easy to understand way, letting you see information on companies and their directors.
Customers of the 4-year-old business include Royal Mail, Dell, Stripe, Unicef, and private equity houses like HG Capital and Providence Equity. As well as due diligence, companies use it for research and lead generation.
14. iwoca — online small business lending
Founded: 2011
Founders: Christoph Rieche and James Dear
Headquartered: London
Funding to date: £20 million ($31.5 million)
iwoca's online platform extends credit facilities up to £100,000 ($150,000) to small businesses. The company's custom-built decision engine gives businesses a decision within a day and loans grew 250% in the year to June.
The company was founded by 2 ex-investment bankers — Goldman Sachs alum Christoph Rieche, now CEO, and James Dear, iwoca's CTO who was previously at Deutsche Bank. It recently raised $20 million (£12.8 million) from 2 German investors, including the venture capital arm of bank Commerzbank.
13. LendInvest — peer-to-peer mortgage crowdfunding
Founded: 2013
Founders: Christian Faes and Ian Thomas
Headquartered: London
Funding to date: £22 million ($34.2 million)
LendInvest's mortgage marketplace matches people looking for quick, short-term mortgage funding with people hoping to get a better return on the money they lend.
The startup recently raised a huge Series A round — the first injection of institutional money — from Chinese technology company Beijing Kunlun, bagging £22 million ($34.2 million).
12. Seedrs — a crowdfunding equity investment platform.
Founded: 2009
Founders: Jeff Lynn and Carlos Silva
Headquartered: London
Funding to date: £22.7 million ($35 million)
Seedrs is an equity crowdfunding platform that lets people invest in startups from as little as £10 or €10. Tennis player Andy Murray sits on the company's advisory board and has invested in startups through the platform.
Seedrs recently raised £10 million from respected City fund manager Neil Woodford and is planning to launch in the US shortly.
11. eToro — lets you follow top traders and automatically copy the trades they make
Founded: 2006
Founders: Yoni Assia, Ronen Assia, David Ring
Headquartered: Canary Wharf, London/Tel Aviv, Israel
Funding to date: £47.5 million ($72.9 million)
This 'social' trading platform allows you to follow top traders and even automatically copy the trades they make on things like currency and stocks.
The company recently raised $39 million (£25.5 million) to break into Russia and China. It currently has offices in the UK, Israel, Russia, Cyprus and Australia, and is planning to open more overseas soon.
10. GoCardless — direct debit processing for small businesses
Founded: 2011
Founders: Matt Robinson, Hiroki Takeuchi
Headquartered: Islington, London
Funding to date: £7.7 million ($11.8 million)
This business uses smart technology to make it much easier for businesses to accept and process direct debits. As well as smart tech, the start-up allows small businesses to accept direct debits by aggregating payments to make it affordable.
GoCardless started life in Silicon Valley's legendary Y Combinator accelerator and recently passed £500 million ($765 million) worth of direct debits processed. The company currently has around 11,000 customers including TripAdvisor, The Guardian, the FT and Box. GoCardless is currently focusing on expanding across Europe.
Founders Matt Robinson and Hiroki Takeuchi are both Oxford graduates who met while working as management consultants at McKinsey.
9. MarketInvoice — lets companies borrow against unpaid invoices
Founded: 2011
Founders: Anil Stocker and Ilya Kondrashov
Headquartered: Holborn, London
Funding to date: £6.6 million ($10.4 million)
This peer-to-peer lending platform lets companies borrow against unpaid invoices online. £400 million ($612 million) has been lent since launch and lending volumes are growing by an average of 30% each month.
Founder Anil Stocker worked at Lehman Brothers before it collapsed, while his co-founder Ilya Kondrashov is a Goldman Sachs alumni.
8. Nutmeg — an investment management services for the rest of us
Founded: 2011
Founders: Nick Hungerford, William Todd
Headquartered: Vauxhall, London
Funding to date: £24 million ($37.3 million)
This start-up makes investment management services that are usually reserved for the wealthy available online for sums as small as £1,000 ($1,530). Savers can set goals like buying a house or paying for university and Nutmeg's money managers will invest their cash accordingly.
Investors in the company include ICAP founder Michael Spencer, Carphone Warehouse founder Sir Charles Dunstone and FTSE 100 asset management company Schroders.
Founder Nick Hungerford is another fintech entrepreneur who has fled from the City, formerly working at stock broker Brewin Dolphin and Barclays wealth management.
7. RateSetter — lets people lend their savings to individual borrowers
Founded: 2009
Founders: Rhydian Lewis, Peter Behrens
Headquartered: Southwark, London
Funding to date: £30 million ($10.4 million)
RateSetter is a peer-to-peer (P2P) lender that lets people lend their savings out to individual borrowers, cutting out the banks. Ratesetter was the largest P2P lender in the UK by volume last year, lending £292 million ($447 million). The business is already profitable.
Prior to Ratesetter, founder Rhydian Lewis worked at boutique investment bank and financial advisor Lazard, which advised the Government on the sale of Royal Mail. Peter Behrens, the other co-founder, was a banker with Royal Bank of Scotland.
6. Crowdcube — an equity crowdfunding platform
Founded: 2011
Founders: Darren Westlake, Luke Lang
Headquartered: University of Exeter campus, Exeter
Funding to date: £13 million ($19.9 million)
Crowdcube is an equity crowdfunding platform that lets businesses raise money by selling shares online. Company's have raised over £100 million ($153 million) on the platform since it launched in 2011.
The startup recently raised £6 million from City firm Numis Securities and is planning the world's first crowdfunded IPO on the platform next year.
5. Zopa — a pioneer in peer-to-peer lending
Founded: 2005
Founders: James Alexander, Richard Duvall, David Nicholson, Giles Andrews
Headquartered: Farringdon, London
Funding to date: Over £35 million ($55 million)
Zopa was a pioneer in peer-to-peer lending in the UK. Its platform lets people lend money to consumers and it recently passed £1 billion lent over the platform.
Before Zopa, the company's founders launched online challenger bank Egg in the UK in the late 1990s. Zopa recently partnered with challenger bank Metro Bank to offer loans to consumers over its platform.
4. WorldRemit — cash transfers to emerging markets
Founded: 2009
Founders: Ismail Ahmed
Headquartered: Hammersmith, London
Funding to date: £96 million ($147.7 million)
Like TransferWise, WorldRemit offers cheaper international money transfer services than traditional rivals. The Hammersmith based company focuses on transfers to emerging markets like Africa and Asia, where mobile wallets have leapfrogged bank accounts.
Somali-born founder Ismail Ahmed, pictured, helped the UN crack down on money laundering before setting up the business.
WorldRemit was valued at $500 million (£326 million) in a recent funding round in which it raised $100 million (£65 million).
3. Blockchain — a bitcoin wallet and processing provider
Founded: 2011
Founders: Nicolas Cary, Ben Reeves, Peter Smith
Headquartered: London
Funding to date: £22 million ($30 million)
Blockchain is the world's most popular bitcoin wallet provider, with over 3.5 million users worldwide. Its wallets let people store and spend bitcoin, and it also builds software that lets businesses accept bitcoin. Backers include Virgin billionaire Sir Richard Branson.
2. TransferWise — peer-to-peer international money transfer
Founded: 2011
Founders: Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Kaarmann
Headquartered: London
Funding to date: £58.8 million ($90.4 million)
The 4-year-old company, which was founded by two Estonians, matches people looking to send currencies in different directions, cutting down on costs by cutting out the actual transfer of money. Instead, TransferWise pays out of, or into, large accounts in each country.
TransferWise became one of the few London one of the few UK technology startups to be valued at $1 billion (£650 million) earlier this year when Silicon Valley venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz invested $58 million (£37 million) in the company.
1. Funding Circle — peer-to-peer small business loans
Founded: 2010
Founders: Samir Desai, James Meekings, and Andrew Mullinger
Headquartered: The City of London, London
Funding to date: £177.7 million ($273.2 million)
Funding Circle's online platform lets savers lend directly to small businesses, cutting out the banks and offering more favourable interest rates than offered by traditional bank savings accounts.
Over $1 billion (£650 million)-worth of loans have been financed on the platform since launch and CEO Samir Desai told Business Insider recently the company is set to near triple revenues this year to £35 million.