London has become a booming colossus for financial and fintech startups, with many of the $1 billion "unicorns" in the sector now in the British capital.
There are other pockets of Europe where financial startups also seem to thrive.
Many of these companies are working at the intersection of tech and finance. Some are aiming to market a product to everyone, some just to businesses, and some to the biggest banks and financial institutions.
What's common among all the companies is that they're actively making their own markets, fulfilling demand where there previously might have been none - especially since the financial crisis in 2008. But they're all offering something new, exciting, and financially promising.
18. eToro: Making trading more transparent
Etoro aims to bring "social trading" to a mass audience, and the Cyprus and London-based firm already boasts 4.5 million users.
The trading covers everything from currencies and stocks, to bitcoin.
Among other features, it offers a "copy trading" option that allows you to allocate a portion of your funds to certain traders, and then simply mimic what they're doing — effectively taking some of the pressure off a retail investor.
The company has raised $72.9 million (£48.06) in 7 funding rounds.
17. Metro Bank: The flagship challenger bank
There may be a few eyebrows raised at the idea of a fairly large bank being an innovative startup. But in the context of UK banking, Metro Bank is one of the most interesting forces in years.
The bank was set up over five years ago, based on the US Commerce Bank model, and already has hundreds of thousands of accounts in London and south east England. They're aiming for a flotation eventually, and chief executive Craig Donaldson has talked about being a FTSE 100 company in just four years.
They're focused on a service-provision model, putting an extremely high premium on the ease of opening and accessing an account, opening hours and customer care. With UK confidence in banks extremely low, that's been a winning strategy for Metro Bank so far.
16. iZettle: Has a head start on Square in Europe
iZettle is one of Square's major competitors outside of the US. The Sweden-based service, which launched in 2011, markets low-fee mobile payments technology.
While Square had a year's head start on iZettle, the difference in card payments in the US and Europe gave iZettle an "in" before Square launched in Europe: card payments in the EU are almost all done by chip-and-pin; the US has yet to adopt the tech.
The firm has received $178.5 million (£117.82 million) in five funding rounds, and launched in the Netherlands late last year.
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