The past two decades have seen an explosion of innovation in Asia, helping the region become a global leader in areas such as robotics, electric vehicles and 5G networks. But there is one area that Asia dominates more than any other: fintech. Any first-time traveler to Asia will be struck by a combination of mobile and digital wallet technology that is a generation ahead from countries like the United States, where cash and paper checks are still common.
Asian progress is the reason why Fortune publishes Fintech Innovators Asia, our inaugural list of leading companies in five segments: blockchain and crypto; digital banking; payments; wealth technology; and insurtech. The list, ranked in each category, reflects an incredible explosion of innovation, from China and South Korea to India and Singapore.
Some names on the list are familiar to everyone in finance. Ant Group and Tencent, along with their respective payment services Alipay and WeChat Pay, have reinvented the way consumers shop in Asia. Meanwhile, Binance, #1 in our “blockchain and crypto” category, is a global force that started as a maverick offshore exchange and is now entering a new era of compliance headed by a former Singaporean regulator.
The other companies on the list may not be globally known, but they have managed to dominate regional markets, transforming everyday commerce. Indonesia-based Dana has more than 180 million users, primarily in Indonesia, the region’s largest economy. And in the Philippines, the local platform GCash by Mynt found a niche addressing women and the country’s huge foreign diaspora.
Digital banks, meanwhile, have grown from small disruptors to powerful financial forces, as evidenced by China’s WeBank and Korea’s KakaoBank, which have attracted approximately 400 million and 23 million customers to their markets, respectively. respective. In doing so, they changed the concept of what a bank is, much like players like Singapore’s Grab, which started as a ride-hailing service but quickly became a financial super app with forays into payments and banking.
The rise of fintech innovation has also given rise to a range of new services in the areas of wealth management and insurance. Companies like Tiger Brokers and Endowus are taking products once reserved for the rich and well-connected and putting them in the pockets of everyone with a cell phone. And insurers in the region are using the latest technology to offer new services and products, such as Income Insurance’s “Droplet,” a microinsurance product that protects users against price gouging on ride-sharing platforms .
Asian companies did not come away with all the distinctions. Western brands like Wise and Coinbase also feature on Fortuneattracted by the opportunities and new ideas of Asia. Together, the 60 names on this year’s list are poised to continue transforming the region’s financial infrastructure and leading the way for the rest of the world.
You can view the entire Asia Fintech Innovators List 2024 here.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com