Owned by Tencent, WeBank was China's first digital bank and services 340 million customers.

More than 1.3 billion adults worldwide do not have access to basic banking services as of this writing—but some experts believe that the fintech industry can help with that by targeting groups of people who have historically been underserved by traditional banks.

Tencent owns QQ, Weixin, and WeChat—three separate apps serving different users. QQ launched in 1999 as a youth-focused messenger. Weixin (for China) and WeChat (international) are technically the same app, but split to comply with regional regulations, especially around data and payments.

An ambitious project launched by OpenAI's founder Sam Altman, Worldcoin aims to provide a global financial and identity network based on proof of personhood through biometric scanning of individuals' irises.

Elon Musk cofounded "X.com," an online banking service, in 1999 with the idea that the web would become a financial repository as internet access expanded and became ingrained in daily life. Peter Thiel cofounded "Confinity" as a digital security service that morphed into a payments system. In 2000, the two merged to form PayPal, and in 2002, they sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5B.

SoftBank is widely considered the biggest victim in the WeWork story, losing billions of dollars that it invested in the company while WeWork’s CEO walked away a billionaire himself.

From the debut of the world’s first ATM in 1967, to Apple Pay launching in 2014, financial technologies have come a very long way in a relatively short historical period. A colorful visual timeline highlights some of the most important milestones along the way.

Most of the industry's prominent players were created since 2010, and are still in a growth phase. These institutions have broadly disrupted traditional banking and have pushed physical banking locations toward obsolescence.

Silicon Valley Bank—the 16th largest bank in the US—served many tech startups in the area as well as many venture capitalists. The bank collapsed in 2023—in a single day, bankers took out $42B.

Zelle is an alternative to Venmo, where people can pay each other back for expenses like apartment utilities or dinner. But its origin story has more to do with big finance than small transactions.

Artificial intelligence is fuelling a financial technology transformation in some countries where an outsized number of residents lack access to basic financial services, including Brazil and Nigeria.

In the years leading up to WeWork’s bankruptcy, the tech holding company SoftBank invested roughly $16B into the company.

In early 2026, the company joined major tech companies Nvidia, Apple, and Meta (among others) as one of the rare firms with a market capitalization beyond $1T. See the latest top companies here.

The accounts act as an anchor for customer relationships that banks need to retain said customers. As fintech companies unbundle the checking account without technically being chartered banks, traditional banks face pressure to innovate the checking account experience.

That's just one signal of the industry's massive growth. Investments in the global fintech industry have grown from $4B in 2010 to $92.3B in 2021, as both businesses and consumers seem to quickly adopt new fintech products, from digital payment apps to robo-advisers.

By scanning the security chip on the back of passports and capturing images or video of a person, apps like Google Wallet and Apple Wallet create a digital version of the document. Some states have also developed their own apps for digital driver's licenses.

As of 2023, the company has 40% of the electric vehicle market in China and produces more than 3 million EVs for customers worldwide. Its vertical integration, which includes building its own batteries and cargo ships, has allowed BYD to lower retail costs.

Today, the company is called PDD Holdings, and owns both Temu and its very similar sister app in China, Pinduoduo.

FDIC data indicates 128 million households have a checking account, the vast majority (96% in 2024). But more than 14% of households are underbanked, meaning they have accounts but also rely on nonbank services such as check cashing, payday loans, or prepaid cards.

ByteDance has ridden TikTok's major success to become the world's most valuable startup. This deep dive showcases some of the company's smartest moves and tactics, and where it's headed next.

Generative artificial intelligence has left no industry untouched, and banking isn’t an exception. Experts estimate that gen AI could add as much as $340B in value to the banking sector each year. For consumers, this involves new features to prevent fraud and customer service chatbots. This report dives into the revolution underway and seeks to define a “full stack” AI bank of the future. Read more here.

The one-time battery company eclipsed Tesla in total sales in 2024. The Chinese-backed manufacturer targets low- to mid-tier cars and builds 75% of its components in-house. Its cars typically retail at half the cost of similar Tesla models.

PayPal, which, like Palantir, was cofounded by Peter Thiel, developed the initial framework for Palantir's data-mining service to prevent financial crime. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Thiel realized the software could also enable government agencies to connect data and prevent similar terrorist attacks from occurring in the future.

The modern BNPL model didn't take off until the COVID-19 pandemic, when consumers were stuck at home and lockdowns forced them to shop online rather than in person. The number of US BNPL loans grew more than tenfold from 2019 (16.8 million) to 2021 (180 million), according to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report.

Although countries like China are moving toward a cashless system, many other countries still rely on physical money for everyday transactions. This article dives into the future of currency and includes a map of the percentage of adults who do cashless transactions around the world.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, as WeWork's largest financier, had been Neumann's biggest champion for years—until he volleyed for Neumann to be removed from his position as WeWork's CEO.

In 1984, Sears arguably created one of the first online retail services, called “Prodigy,” in 1984 alongside IBM and CBS. But it was more of a WeChat than an Amazon, offering a variety of other services to users a few years before the dot com era.

Some apps, like EarnIn, allow users to get money from their paycheck in advance. These apps access users' banking information, allowing the company to immediately take back any borrowed money and track users' financial situations to evaluate their risk. Unlike traditional payday lenders, these apps often waive the right to sue users who don't pay back the initial principal and don't charge interest, but rather ask users for a tip.

Centered around user-generated short videos, the platform was created by the Chinese technology company ByteDance Ltd. With over 1.8 billion users, the app has become a global force.

The tool from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (also known as the FDIC) allows users to search for these institutions by name, location, and more.

Some people use buy now, pay later apps as an alternative to credit cards. BNPL services have a lower barrier to entry than credit cards—many frequent BNPL users have low credit scores.

Bitcoin is typically cited as the first decentralized cryptocurrency. But some argue that back in the 1990s, eCash was technically the first cryptocurrency, although it wasn't decentralized.

Founded in 1982, E-Trade was the first-ever online brokerage, pioneering a method of investing that is common today. Its story is part of a timeline that the New York Times put together of key moments in early fintech history.

Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa founded the New Development Bank in 2015, clearly positioning it as a counterbalance to the World Bank and IMF—and a way for middle powers to influence global economic governance.