If you believe the hype, then banks are about to be supplanted by a tsunami of fintech firms rolling in to disrupt the industry and wash away the established edifices of the financial system. Ok, these firms might not pay banking salaries, but they offer stock. And stock is the thing to have if you’re working for a company that become the next Markit, Bloomberg, or Fidessa.
We spoke to 11 of the world’s top fintech firms about what makes them special and who they’re hiring now. If you’re looking for a fintech job, this is what you need to know.
1. Dataminr
What is it?
“Dataminr transforms the Twitter stream and other public datasets into actionable signals, discovering must-know information in real-time for clients in Finance, the public sector, news, security and crisis management,” says CEO Ted Bailey. “Using powerful, proprietary algorithms, Dataminr instantly analyzes all public tweets and other publicly available data to deliver the earliest signals for breaking news, real-world events, off the radar context and perspective, and emerging trends,” Bailey adds. Based in NYC.
Current employees:
Dataminr has over 150 employees and is headquartered in New York City, with offices in DC, London, San Francisco and Montana.
Who’s it hiring?
“We are looking for the best and brightest technologists and business people to help us do something that has never been done before,” declares Bailey. “We’re disrupting the real-time detection of information for the Finance, News and Public Sector industries. We’re a nimble and smart group of technologists and business strategists. Our customers come first. We were founded in New York City and understand the speed of a “New York Minute.” We work hard, but we also understand that building a great and big company is a marathon, not a sprint. We’re proud of our work, but we don’t have egos. We invest in our team members to enable them to grow with the company. We’re passionate about what we do and we’re having fun doing it.”
2. REDI
What is it?
REDI provides ‘end to end’ trade management technology for trading firms. CEO Rishi Nangalia says the company is differentiated by, “the depth and breadth of our distribution capabilities and the potential of our open platform.” The company includes BAML’s former InstaQuote business. Based in NYC.
Current employees:
150 staff at 7 offices globally, plus consultants.
Who’s it hiring?
“We’re always on the lookout for talent that is willing to think outside the traditional technology, and financial mindsets to find creative ways to solve problems,” says Nangalia.
3. Symphony
What is it?
Best known as the chat app that’s looking to take on Bloomberg, Symphony describes itself as a, ‘Symphony is a secure and compliant workflow platform – a single application for individuals, teams and businesses to communicate efficiently and securely,” according to CEO Gurle.
“We are uniquely different from competitive products as our application offers more than just chat and messaging, it brings together communication, community and content all in one application/platform and designed with security and compliance in mind, making every communication internally and externally protected from cyber-attacks,” Gurle adds. Based in Palo Alto.
Current employees:
‘More than 135.’
Who’s it hiring?
“Sales, business development and engineering are our key focus at the moment,” says Gurle.
4. R3CEV
What is it?
R3CEV is a blockchain initiative that’s backed by nine big banks…. “R3 differentiates itself by taking a highly scientific and methodical approach and has entered this market after careful analysis of the sector and it’s many players. We’ve closely evaluated numerous companies and their offerings,” says CEO David Rutter. Based in NYC.
Current employees:
A core team of a ‘dozen staff’, plus outside partners and ventures.
Who’s it hiring?
“R3 is always looking for smart, hungry, talented people from diverse backgrounds. We are looking for high quality developers who understand distributed systems, cryptography and banking,” says Rutter.
5. Etoro
What is it?
“We are the world’s largest social investment network,” says CEO Yoni Assia. ” We are considered the pioneer and inventor in the concept of social and copy trading, and that is what differentiates us from everybody else in the industry. We are one of the few companies that actually show everybody’s real portfolio on the network.” Based in London.
Current employees:
240 people
Who’s it hiring?
“We are always looking for people to help promote Etoro locally and globally, so we are always looking for marketing and sales people in the financial industry. We now have offices in Cyprus, the UK, Russia, China, so we are constantly looking for people in sales and marketing there too,” says Assa.
6. Digital Shadows
What is it?
“Digital Shadows SearchLight™ provides a complete view of an organisation’s digital footprint and the profile of its attackers. Complemented with security analyst expertise, SearchLight continuously monitors more than 100 million data sources in 27 languages across the visible, deep and dark web,” says CEO Alastair Paterson. Based in London.
Current employees:
50 in London and San Francisco.
Who’s it hiring?
Digital Shadows plans to double its staff in the next 12 months.
“We are looking for high quality people on both the sales and technical side. As well as being bright, it’s equally as important to us that we hire people that will blend into the team and be enjoyable to work with. This helps create a fun social environment where we can share good ideas,” says Paterson.
7. Estimize
What is it?
“Estimize is the first platform to fully embrace the completely open crowdsourcing methodology and subsequently have its data set accepted by the industry as clean, accurate, and representative of true expectations,” says CEO Leigh Drogen. Based in NYC.
Current employees:
Estimize is a team of 20 people. Half are in engineering, product and design, and half on the biz dev, marketing, and sales side
Who’s it hiring?
“My philosophy is that if you come across the perfect player at a position you know you’re going to need in the future, take ’em, whether you need them immediately or not, you’ll never regret that,” says Drogen. “Right now we’re looking for a great sales engineer to work with our potential clients, a senior back end quantitative engineer who can work on the really interesting data sets we collect, and a junior marketing designer to support the sales and biz dev team in explaining our platform and data set to potential customers and partners.”
8. FundApps
What is it?
A provider of cloud-based automated compliance monitoring software. “We provide a true service rather than just software,” says CEO Andrew White. “We have an experienced regulatory team that stays up to date with all the relevant worldwide regulation and codes it in to our software so our clients don’t have to worry about it.” Based in London.
Current employees:
15.
Who’s it hiring?
Another five people by the end of the year. “We’re looking for developers as well as business analysts (with buy side experience) and people with a regulatory background,” says White.
9. Kantox
What is it?
“Kantox offers a simple and efficient solution for businesses to manage their currency exposure,” says CEO Philippe Gelis. “Our customers know beforehand the exact price they are going to pay for the foreign currency as well as the exact commission for the operation, which, on average is 10 times more competitive than what banks and brokers charge.” Based in London.
Current employees:
“In 2012 we were just a handful of people, in 2013 we increased the team to 12 people, in 2014 we grew to 40 and this year, so far, we are 65 people, and counting,” says Gelis.
Who’s it hiring?
“We are always looking for talent,” declares Gelis, adding that he’s interested in, “talent from all areas and all geographical locations.”
10. Stockradar
What is it?
“We make the ecosystem of investing simpler and more effective, so that our customers, mostly individual investors, can follow star investors in their investing patterns,” says CEO Feng Yue. Based in China.
Current employees:
70.
Who’s it hiring?
“We hire both experienced staff and university graduates,” says Yue. “The criteria is simple: we only hire smart people. No dummies please. We are a start-up. All we can compete on is productivity and effectiveness.”
11. Dragon Wealth
What is it?
Asia’s ‘new business accelerator for the financial advisory industry.’ Based in Singapore.
Current employees:
7 people in Singapore.
Who’s it hiring?
“We are currently looking for top data scientists, marketing technologists and growth hackers,” says Bert-Jan van Essen, founder & CEO. “The key challenge is that not all prospective employees understand the value of the equity stake they get here in Singapore. People only look at the cash salary and compare that to what they get in a bank.”
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