By: Joy Macknight

According to a recent McKinsey report, 2025 was a good year for fintechs. Over the 12 months, fintechs generated US$650 billion in revenue, expanding by 21% year on year.

While not in the same league as the big tech valuations, such as OpenAI’s $852 billion or indeed SpaceX’s $800 billion valuation before its historic initial public offering on 12 June, a handful have already reached “decacorn” status, or private companies valued at US$10 billion or more, including Revolut (US$75 billion), Ripple (US$50 billion) and Stripe ($65 billion).

The most successful fintechs are balancing scale, profitability, and operational and regulatory maturity, according to McKinsey.

One of the most popular sessions at Money 2020 Europe was an expert panel hosted by TTP exploring whether there was a formula to building a globally significant fintech business in 2026.

Antony Jenkins, Founder, Chair and CEO of 10x Banking, a cloud-native core banking platform, outlined three ingredients for success: solving a real problem at scale, human capital, and financial capital.

He acknowledged that financial capital is harder to access this year. “With a few exceptions, the gloss has come off fintech. But at the end of the day, if you have a real scale problem and a compelling solution, the money is not a problem,” he said.

Emily Turner, CEO, HSBC Innovation Banking UK, which focuses on start-ups, scale-ups, and growth businesses, encouraged fintechs to view venture debt as a key part of the capital debt mix for fintechs in Europe and the UK, which are behind US fintechs in this respect. “There’s more ability for companies to borrow than one might think. It’s worth a discussion for entrepreneurs and investors in the room, because non-dilutive funding can complement equity financing,” she said.

Turner also highlighted the unique elements inherent in a fintech’s growth journey compared to other sectors. “A fintech entrepreneur can’t just build now and engage later – they have to engage and build at the same time, which is much harder. They need to engage with regulators and customers to embed trust in their business model, but they must also think about their partner experience from day one,” she said.

A huge amount of scale also comes from a fintech’s surrounding financial services network, she added.

Decacorns require real-time, 24/7, scalable and resilient infrastructure, according to Mark Fairless, CEO, ClearBank, a fully regulated cloud-native, API-first clearing bank. 

“Fintechs need to scale the proposition to solve a problem internationally in real time, and the infrastructure has to support their ambitions,” he said. “It needs to be able to handle all the volume you are going to have and not fall over.”

Jenkins agreed, emphasising the importance of real time, particularly in the world of agentic AI, which requires the ability to analyse data in real time and then take action. “However, much of the financial infrastructure today is based on 30-year-old architecture designed to run in batches, which has been forced into the unnatural act of simulating real time,” he explained. “As such, there’s a huge amount of cost and friction in the system.”

Instead of automating historical paper flows, he argued for complete process re-engineering that increases speed and reduces friction, risk, and cost for the end user.

The secret sauce: people

Returning to Jenkins’s comment on human capital, Fairless said that the right culture was also a critical ingredient to reaching decacorn status. “If you haven’t got the right culture, then you’re not going to succeed in the long run. It’s important to think consciously about how to effectively scale your culture, especially when expanding cross-border,” he advised. ClearBank has focused on codifying its culture and has made it part of the interview process for specific roles to ensure a good fit, as well as introduced a full-day induction for new joiners. 

But culture isn’t static and needs to evolve, observed Fairless. “When small, the top-down mind and control entrepreneur-led business works well. However, once an organisation reaches 700-800 people, it needs to empower its staff on the journey and change its leadership and management culture,” he added.

After a 40-year career managing organisations of all sizes, Jenkins’s takeaway is that an organisation needs fewer, better people. “One of the things that we track closely is revenue per employee. That number should always be going up as you generate more revenue, as well as become more efficient and effective,” he said.

Jenkins’s main advice to fintechs aiming to become decacorns is to focus on the customer. “Start with the user, whether a large corporate, small business or individual, and figure out how you can make their lives better through the products and services you provide, and then work back from that.”

Returning to the topic of culture, Fairless stressed the need to have the right people for each stage of development. “You should continually assess whether you have the right people around you for the next phase of the journey with the right skills, aptitude and capabilities,” he said.

Turner’s advice is to continue growing your network. “You need to surround yourself with great people, not just formally in your team, but the people from whom you seek advice, your board and your customers. If you find great people, keep them in your network,” she said.