Several Canadian financial technology (fintech) firms are featured in New York-based research firm CB Insights’ list of 250 leading private fintech firms around the world.

The Canadian companies Toronto-based robo-advisor Wealthsimple Financial Inc.; Toronto-based cloud-based point-of-sale platform FinanceIt; Vancouver-based digital identity firm Trulioo; as well as Wave Accounting and Street Contxt, which are both based in Toronto.

The list is based on an algorithm that capturesa variety of metrics ranging from the firms’ funding status to their social media mentions, the quality of the investors participating in deals with the company, and the health of the market niche they’re working in.

“The financial services industry will see more change in the next 10 years than it has in the last 100,” says CB Insights CEO and co-founder, Anand Sanwal, who unveiled the list at an industry conference in New York this week. “And that transformation is being driven by a group of smart insurgent startup companies. The Fintech 250 are the most promising of these insurgents. They are bringing emerging technologies and business models to financial services that will permanently change the way we handle money and do business.”

The list features companies in a variety of sectors, from wealth management to payments, insurance, crowdfunding, blockchain and regtech. It includes representatives from 23 countries.

“Fintech companies are reinventing the financial services industry and it’s important to acknowledge, and discuss, innovation in this sector,” says Stephen Ufford, Trulioo’s CEO, in a statement. “RegTech is a subset of fintech and plays a crucial role, enhancing customer experience by leveraging new technologies to help reduce costs, provide a competitive advantage, and drive more effective and efficient regulation and compliance. In turn, this enables fintech companies to focus their attention on product innovation, problem solving, and the continual reinvention of the financial services industry.”

Photo copyright: bakhtiarzein/123RF