Paul Renner @DealMakerPro

Europe’s top 10 FinTechs are worth over $200 BILLION 🤯 And most of that comes from one country.. From the top: • 🇬🇧 @Revolut — $75B • 🇳🇱 @Adyen — $36B • 🇬🇧 @Worldpay_Global — $24B • 🇬🇧 @SumUp — $15B • 🇩🇪 @traderepublic — $15B • 🇬🇧 @Checkout — $12B • 🇬🇧 Admiral Group Plc — $12B • 🇬🇧 @Wise — $12B • 🇬🇧 @FinastraFS — $10B • 🇬🇧 ION — $9B A highly concentrated landscape, with a few standout players across Europe. 📷 Source: Multiples.vc Which of these do you think will break away even further from the pack? And, what is going to be the next European FinTech to break into this top 10?

x.com/i/article/2029…

Palm Beach Style: The Definitive Guide to the Island's Iconic Glamour luxurycolumnist.com/palm-beach-sty… via @luxurycolumnist

x.com/i/article/2029…

x.com/i/article/2028…

The 20 Most Valuable Private FinTechs in the World 👇 See who made the list: Here’s the 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗥𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴, featuring the Top 20 private FinTech companies globally, ranked by estimated valuation (as of January 2026): 1 – @tether 🔹 Segment: Stablecoin 🔹 Founded: 2014 | HQ: El Salvador 💰 Valuation: $500B 2 – @stripe 🔹 Segment: Payments (API) 🔹 Founded: 2010 | HQ: USA & Ireland 🦄 Unicorn: 2014 (4 years) 💰 Valuation: $106.7B 3 – @AntGroup 🔹 Segment: Payments 🔹 Founded: 2004 | HQ: China 🦄 Unicorn: 2015 (11 years) 💰 Valuation: $103–104B 4 – @Revolut 🔹 Segment: Neobank 🔹 Founded: 2015 | HQ: UK 🦄 Unicorn: 2018 (3 years) 💰 Valuation: $75B 5 – @binance 🔹 Segment: Crypto Exchange 🔹 Founded: 2017 | HQ: United Arab Emirates 🦄 Unicorn: 2025 (6 years) 💰 Valuation: $62B 6 – @Ripple 🔹 Segment: Crypto Payments 🔹 Founded: 2012 | HQ: USA 🦄 Unicorn: 2014–2016 (2–4 years) 💰 Valuation: $40B 7 – @Webank 🔹 Segment: Digital Bank 🔹 Founded: 2014 | HQ: China 🦄 Unicorn: 2016 (2 years) 💰 Valuation: $32.4B 8 – @tryramp 🔹 Segment: FinTech / FinOps 🔹 Founded: 2019 | HQ: USA 🦄 Unicorn: 2021 (2 years) 💰 Valuation: $32B 9 – JD Digits 🔹 Segment: FinTech Infrastructure 🔹 Founded: 2013 | HQ: China 🦄 Unicorn: 2020 (7 years) 💰 Valuation: $30B 10 – @Citadel Securities 🔹 Segment: Market Maker 🔹 Founded: 2002 | HQ: USA 🦄 Unicorn: 2022 (20 years) 💰 Valuation: $22B 11 – @FNZ_Group 🔹 Segment: WealthTech 🔹 Founded: 2003 | HQ: UK 🦄 Unicorn: 2019 (16 years) 💰 Valuation: $20–21B 12 – @krakenfx 🔹 Segment: Crypto Exchange 🔹 Founded: 2011 | HQ: USA 🦄 Unicorn: 2023 (12 years) 💰 Valuation: $20B* 13 – @traderepublic 🔹 Segment: WealthTech 🔹 Founded: 2015 | HQ: Germany 🦄 Unicorn: 2021 (6 years) 💰 Valuation: $14.6B 14 – @PhonePe 🔹 Segment: Mobile Payments 🔹 Founded: 2015 | HQ: India 🦄 Unicorn: 2018 (3 years) 💰 Valuation: $14.5B 15 – @onegoodleap 🔹 Segment: Lending 🔹 Founded: 2003 | HQ: USA 🦄 Unicorn: 2021 (18 years) 💰 Valuation: $12B 16 – @Checkout .com 🔹 Segment: Payment Gateway 🔹 Founded: 2012 | HQ: UK 🦄 Unicorn: 2019 (7 years) 💰 Valuation: $12B* 17 – @Polymarket 🔹 Segment: Prediction Markets 🔹 Founded: 2020 | HQ: USA 🦄 Unicorn: 2025 (5 years) 💰 Valuation: $11.6B 18 – @Kalshi 🔹 Segment: Prediction Markets 🔹 Founded: 2018 | HQ: USA 🦄 Unicorn: 2025 (7 years) 💰 Valuation: $11B 19 – @HeyBilt Rewards 🔹 Segment: Payments / Rewards 🔹 Founded: 2012 | HQ: UK 🦄 Unicorn: 2019 (7 years) 💰 Valuation: $10.75B 20 – Dunamu (Upbit) 🔹 Segment: Crypto Exchange 🔹 Founded: 2012 | HQ: South Korea 🦄 Unicorn: 2018 (6 years) 💰 Valuation: $10.27B I higly recommend reading the complete blog post with more info & stats: bit.ly/4bKyWAw Did I miss anything?

Most businesses chase growth the wrong way. They jump to risky bets before exhausting safer moves. Every company has 7 levels of growth potential:

Stablecoins look instant on the surface. Underneath, it’s a full payments stack. If you’re building or investing in stablecoin rails, it helps to think in layers: The 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝘆𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗱 (great graphic by Michael Ngo at @getTransFi 👇) Every real-world stablecoin payment runs through all of these layers: ► 𝗙𝗶𝗮𝘁 – USD, EUR, JPY. The credibility anchor. ► 𝗜𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲𝗿𝘀 – minting fully-backed stablecoins (USDT, USDC, etc.). ► 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 – Ethereum, Solana and others where settlement actually happens. ► 𝗟𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 – FX, pricing, and conversion between rails and tokens. ► 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗱𝘆 – securing assets, keys, governance, MPC. ► 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 – transaction monitoring, sanctions, traceability. ► 𝗠𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗔𝗣𝗜𝘀 – abstracting blockchain complexity into payments infra. ► 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘀 – addresses, keys, and transaction UX for users and apps. ► 𝗗𝗲𝗙𝗶 – yield, lending, liquidity, capital efficiency. ► 𝗥𝗮𝗺𝗽 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 – on/off-ramps that connect crypto back to local bank accounts. My takeaway: adoption accelerates when the last mile disappears. Users don’t want “a stablecoin strategy”, they want payroll, payouts, and checkout that just works. Which layer is the biggest bottleneck right now: liquidity, compliance, or ramps?

Global FinTech funding is clearly finding its footing again 📈 In 2025, the sector raised $𝟱𝟯 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻, up 21% year-over-year, across 5,918 deals. A few things stand out: • The US continues to dominate with $25.1B invested • Strong follow-ups from the UK ($3.6B) and India ($3.4B) • The UAE ($2.5B) and Singapore ($2B) are firmly on the global FinTech map Mega-rounds are back too: • @binance  — $2B (🇦🇪) • @tryramp  — $1B (🇺🇸) • @krakenfx  — $800M (🇺🇸) • @FNZ_Group  — $650M (🇬🇧) • @PhonePe  — $600M (🇮🇳) Capital is flowing again, but it’s clearly concentrating around scale, infrastructure, and proven execution. Curious to see if 2026 brings fewer deals, bigger rounds… or both. 📷 Source: Innovate Finance

Top 14 Luxury Men's Suit Brands for Distinguished Gentlemen luxurycolumnist.com/best-luxury-me… via @luxurycolumnist

15 Best Luxury Wellness Products Worth the Investment in 2026 luxurycolumnist.com/best-luxury-we… via @luxurycolumnist

Europe's Digital Banking Ecosystem Map going into 2026👇 Which neobank is missing in this overview?

Los Angeles CityPASS: Your Guide to Saving Up to 44% on LA's Top Attractions luxurycolumnist.com/los-angeles-ci… via @luxurycolumnist #losangeles #LA @CityPASS

Happy New Year! Have a wonderful year ahead! #HappyNYE #NewYear2026

The Public FinTech Market Landscape - End-of-Week Market Recap👇 This week was a bloodbath.. The Key Takeaways: The upper tier of the FinTech landscape remained stable in terms of rankings, but all three major players finished the week slightly lower. Visa held its dominant position at $597.5B (–0.72%), followed by Mastercard at $485.3B (–0.93%) and American Express at $243.1B (–1.19%). Further down the list, the volatility was far more pronounced. Robinhood dropped sharply with –12.92%, Coinbase fell –15.25%, and Circle declined –12.98%, underscoring the pressure on market sentiment. Want more of his? Sign up for 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 for my weekly "𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝘀" newsletter that distills the most important financial and strategic developments in the FinTech sector into 5️⃣ clear, data-driven charts: howfintechperforms.com/red-week-acros…

Visa & Mastercard are moving faster into stablecoins than anyone expected. And the scale is already massive… Stablecoins are no longer a side experiment, they’re becoming a core payments rail for the card networks. Here are numbers that matter: ► Visa’s stablecoin-linked card spend is up 4x YoY ► 130+ stablecoin card programs live in 40+ countries ► Mastercard: 100+ crypto card programs globally ► Rain’s stablecoin cards → $2B+ annualized spend ► Mastercard is reportedly in talks to acquire Zerohash for $2B: lnkd.in/d9Txg3Eb ► Visa already invested in stablecoin startup BVNK and custodian Anchorage What’s driving this? In markets like LATAM and Africa, banks struggle to access USD liquidity. Stablecoins fix that — instantly. And stablecoin-backed prepaid cards let users hold dollars and spend locally, with fintech apps doing the behind-the-scenes conversion. For merchants, the value is even clearer: Funds settle faster while interchange remains the same. Both networks are also quietly enabling banks to issue their own stablecoins, rather than competing with them, a strategic move to stay indispensable. Credit cards won’t be replaced anytime soon (on-chain credit isn’t there yet), but Visa is already studying crypto-backed credit products for the next wave. What’s also interesting: Visa & Mastercard aren’t launching their own stablecoins, they’re becoming the infrastructure helping banks launch theirs. A strategic move to stay indispensable without competing directly with issuers. At the same time, merchants love stablecoin settlement because funds arrive faster, even if interchange stays the same. And while stablecoins won’t replace credit yet (no on-chain credit model exists at scale), Visa is openly exploring crypto-backed credit cards, which they believe could be a “massive opportunity.” My take: This is no longer “crypto payments.” This is a new USD distribution model for the developing world, and the card networks are positioning themselves as the global rails for it. Five years from now, stablecoin-backed cards may be one of Visa’s and Mastercard’s biggest growth engines. What do you think?

Corendon Playa Kemer Review: Mediterranean Luxury in Antalya luxurycolumnist.com/corendon-playa… via @luxurycolumnist

10 Most Innovative Luxury Watch Releases of the Past Decade luxurycolumnist.com/most-innovativ… via @luxurycolumnist

Here’s a list of the 🇬🇧 UK’s most valuable private (Fin)Tech companies:

Here are the latest Payments News Updates you don't want to miss today. I’ve sourced and listed the most important Payments news so you don't have to: 1️⃣- @PayPal Goes Down Under with Fastlane Checkout 2️⃣- Banking on Inclusion: What Instant Payments Could Mean for Millions 3️⃣- @stripe to Launch Capital in Australia 4️⃣- @jeeves_inc Launches Jeeves Instant Pay 5️⃣- Portugal's SIBS to Buy Polish Payments Firm ITCARD 6️⃣- @Mastercard Partners with @ncratleos and ITCARD on Contactless Solutions, Launches Open Banking with Paytently 7️⃣- FedNow Increases Transaction Limit to $10 Million 8️⃣- @Ant_Intl and @alipayhk Launch Digital Wallet Partnership 9️⃣- @AsiaPay Taps Hands In to Roll Out Split Payments for Merchants 🔟- Contactless Card Payments Could Become Unlimited Read the complete newsletter for more news updates, insights: connectingthedotsinpayments.com/p/25c07b2f-7fc…