The 17 hottest fintech companies in Britain ranked

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17. Algomi — a social network for the bond market

17. Algomi — a social network for the bond market

Founded: 2012

Founders: Stu Taylor, Usman Khan, Robert Howes, Michael Schmidt

Headquartered: Fenchurch Street, London

Funding to date: £7.7 million ($11.8 million)

Founded by former UBS bankers, Algomi has created a social network for the bond market that connects those who want to sell with those who want to buy.

Prior to Algomi, this was done through speculative phone calls wasting a lot of time. It's service is currently used by nine banks, including some of the world's biggest.

The startup, founded in 2012, has offices in New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Chicago, and is planning a major push into the US.

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16. Currency Cloud — international payment processing

16. Currency Cloud — international payment processing

Founded: 2012

Founders: Nigel Verdon

Headquartered: London

Funding to date: £22.7 million ($35 million)

Currency Cloud software plugs into businesses' systems and lets them send money internationally in a simpler and cheaper way than banks do.

Many other fintech startups like TransferWise and Azimo use the service and Currency Cloud processed $10 billion (£6.32 billion) worth of payments last year alone, across 212 countries.

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15. DueDil — financial information provider

15. DueDil — financial information provider

Founded: 2011

Founders: Damian Kimmelman

Headquartered: London

Funding to date: £14 million ($22 million)

Dubbed "Britain's answer to Bloomberg", DueDil's platform pulls together data from thousands of sources including company websites, financial filings, news reports, registry data, trademarks, and country court judgments. Then it crunches through all this and presents it in an easy to understand way, letting you see information on companies and their directors.

Customers of the 4-year-old business include Royal Mail, Dell, Stripe, Unicef, and private equity houses like HG Capital and Providence Equity. As well as due diligence, companies use it for research and lead generation.

14. iwoca — online small business lending

14. iwoca — online small business lending

Founded: 2011

Founders: Christoph Rieche and James Dear

Headquartered: London

Funding to date: £20 million ($31.5 million)

iwoca's online platform extends credit facilities up to £100,000 ($150,000) to small businesses. The company's custom-built decision engine gives businesses a decision within a day and loans grew 250% in the year to June.

The company was founded by 2 ex-investment bankers — Goldman Sachs alum Christoph Rieche, now CEO, and James Dear, iwoca's CTO who was previously at Deutsche Bank. It recently raised $20 million (£12.8 million) from 2 German investors, including the venture capital arm of bank Commerzbank.

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13. LendInvest — peer-to-peer mortgage crowdfunding

13. LendInvest — peer-to-peer mortgage crowdfunding

Founded: 2013

Founders: Christian Faes and Ian Thomas

Headquartered: London

Funding to date: £22 million ($34.2 million)

LendInvest's mortgage marketplace matches people looking for quick, short-term mortgage funding with people hoping to get a better return on the money they lend.

The startup recently raised a huge Series A round — the first injection of institutional money — from Chinese technology company Beijing Kunlun, bagging £22 million ($34.2 million).

12. Seedrs — a crowdfunding equity investment platform.

12. Seedrs — a crowdfunding equity investment platform.

Founded: 2009

Founders: Jeff Lynn and Carlos Silva

Headquartered: London

Funding to date: £22.7 million ($35 million)

Seedrs is an equity crowdfunding platform that lets people invest in startups from as little as £10 or €10. Tennis player Andy Murray sits on the company's advisory board and has invested in startups through the platform.

Seedrs recently raised £10 million from respected City fund manager Neil Woodford and is planning to launch in the US shortly.

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11. eToro — lets you follow top traders and automatically copy the trades they make

11. eToro — lets you follow top traders and automatically copy the trades they make

Founded: 2006

Founders: Yoni Assia, Ronen Assia, David Ring

Headquartered: Canary Wharf, London/Tel Aviv, Israel

Funding to date: £47.5 million ($72.9 million)

This 'social' trading platform allows you to follow top traders and even automatically copy the trades they make on things like currency and stocks.

The company recently raised $39 million (£25.5 million) to break into Russia and China. It currently has offices in the UK, Israel, Russia, Cyprus and Australia, and is planning to open more overseas soon.

10. GoCardless — direct debit processing for small businesses

10. GoCardless — direct debit processing for small businesses

Founded: 2011

Founders: Matt Robinson, Hiroki Takeuchi

Headquartered: Islington, London

Funding to date: £7.7 million ($11.8 million)

This business uses smart technology to make it much easier for businesses to accept and process direct debits. As well as smart tech, the start-up allows small businesses to accept direct debits by aggregating payments to make it affordable.

GoCardless started life in Silicon Valley's legendary Y Combinator accelerator and recently passed £500 million ($765 million) worth of direct debits processed. The company currently has around 11,000 customers including TripAdvisor, The Guardian, the FT and Box. GoCardless is currently focusing on expanding across Europe.

Founders Matt Robinson and Hiroki Takeuchi are both Oxford graduates who met while working as management consultants at McKinsey.

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9. MarketInvoice — lets companies borrow against unpaid invoices

9. MarketInvoice — lets companies borrow against unpaid invoices

Founded: 2011

Founders: Anil Stocker and Ilya Kondrashov

Headquartered: Holborn, London

Funding to date: £6.6 million ($10.4 million)

This peer-to-peer lending platform lets companies borrow against unpaid invoices online. £400 million ($612 million) has been lent since launch and lending volumes are growing by an average of 30% each month.

Founder Anil Stocker worked at Lehman Brothers before it collapsed, while his co-founder Ilya Kondrashov is a Goldman Sachs alumni.

8. Nutmeg — an investment management services for the rest of us

8. Nutmeg — an investment management services for the rest of us

Founded: 2011

Founders: Nick Hungerford, William Todd

Headquartered: Vauxhall, London

Funding to date: £24 million ($37.3 million)

This start-up makes investment management services that are usually reserved for the wealthy available online for sums as small as £1,000 ($1,530). Savers can set goals like buying a house or paying for university and Nutmeg's money managers will invest their cash accordingly.

Investors in the company include ICAP founder Michael Spencer, Carphone Warehouse founder Sir Charles Dunstone and FTSE 100 asset management company Schroders.

Founder Nick Hungerford is another fintech entrepreneur who has fled from the City, formerly working at stock broker Brewin Dolphin and Barclays wealth management.

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7. RateSetter — lets people lend their savings to individual borrowers

7. RateSetter — lets people lend their savings to individual borrowers

Founded: 2009

Founders: Rhydian Lewis, Peter Behrens

Headquartered: Southwark, London

Funding to date: £30 million ($10.4 million)

RateSetter is a peer-to-peer (P2P) lender that lets people lend their savings out to individual borrowers, cutting out the banks. Ratesetter was the largest P2P lender in the UK by volume last year, lending £292 million ($447 million). The business is already profitable.

Prior to Ratesetter, founder Rhydian Lewis worked at boutique investment bank and financial advisor Lazard, which advised the Government on the sale of Royal Mail. Peter Behrens, the other co-founder, was a banker with Royal Bank of Scotland.

6. Crowdcube — an equity crowdfunding platform

6. Crowdcube — an equity crowdfunding platform

Founded: 2011

Founders: Darren Westlake, Luke Lang

Headquartered: University of Exeter campus, Exeter

Funding to date: £13 million ($19.9 million)

Crowdcube is an equity crowdfunding platform that lets businesses raise money by selling shares online. Company's have raised over £100 million ($153 million) on the platform since it launched in 2011.

The startup recently raised £6 million from City firm Numis Securities and is planning the world's first crowdfunded IPO on the platform next year.

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5. Zopa — a pioneer in peer-to-peer lending

5. Zopa — a pioneer in peer-to-peer lending

Founded: 2005

Founders: James Alexander, Richard Duvall, David Nicholson, Giles Andrews

Headquartered: Farringdon, London

Funding to date: Over £35 million ($55 million)

Zopa was a pioneer in peer-to-peer lending in the UK. Its platform lets people lend money to consumers and it recently passed £1 billion lent over the platform.

Before Zopa, the company's founders launched online challenger bank Egg in the UK in the late 1990s. Zopa recently partnered with challenger bank Metro Bank to offer loans to consumers over its platform.

4. WorldRemit — cash transfers to emerging markets

4. WorldRemit — cash transfers to emerging markets

Founded: 2009

Founders: Ismail Ahmed

Headquartered: Hammersmith, London

Funding to date: £96 million ($147.7 million)

Like TransferWise, WorldRemit offers cheaper international money transfer services than traditional rivals. The Hammersmith based company focuses on transfers to emerging markets like Africa and Asia, where mobile wallets have leapfrogged bank accounts.

Somali-born founder Ismail Ahmed, pictured, helped the UN crack down on money laundering before setting up the business.

WorldRemit was valued at $500 million (£326 million) in a recent funding round in which it raised $100 million (£65 million).

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3. Blockchain — a bitcoin wallet and processing provider

3. Blockchain — a bitcoin wallet and processing provider

Founded: 2011

Founders: Nicolas Cary, Ben Reeves, Peter Smith

Headquartered: London

Funding to date: £22 million ($30 million)

Blockchain is the world's most popular bitcoin wallet provider, with over 3.5 million users worldwide. Its wallets let people store and spend bitcoin, and it also builds software that lets businesses accept bitcoin. Backers include Virgin billionaire Sir Richard Branson.

2. TransferWise — peer-to-peer international money transfer

2. TransferWise — peer-to-peer international money transfer

Founded: 2011

Founders: Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Kaarmann

Headquartered: London

Funding to date: £58.8 million ($90.4 million)

The 4-year-old company, which was founded by two Estonians, matches people looking to send currencies in different directions, cutting down on costs by cutting out the actual transfer of money. Instead, TransferWise pays out of, or into, large accounts in each country.

TransferWise became one of the few London one of the few UK technology startups to be valued at $1 billion (£650 million) earlier this year when Silicon Valley venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz invested $58 million (£37 million) in the company.

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1. Funding Circle — peer-to-peer small business loans

1. Funding Circle — peer-to-peer small business loans

Founded: 2010

Founders: Samir Desai, James Meekings, and Andrew Mullinger

Headquartered: The City of London, London

Funding to date: £177.7 million ($273.2 million)

Funding Circle's online platform lets savers lend directly to small businesses, cutting out the banks and offering more favourable interest rates than offered by traditional bank savings accounts.

Over $1 billion (£650 million)-worth of loans have been financed on the platform since launch and CEO Samir Desai told Business Insider recently the company is set to near triple revenues this year to £35 million.