20 Best Fintech Startup Ideas

As you explore these startup ideas, consider who you want to use your fintech and what kinds of problems it will solve. Consumers, financial advisors, investors, and more can tap into new and powerful technology that is integrated into the tools they already have at their fingertips.

Cybersecurity is becoming more mainstream. However, many sophisticated technologies are still missing from fintech – particularly with the use of digital apps. You can focus on helping consumers to protect their highly sensitive data.

An app can be developed to focus on a few different components – avoiding security threats, recognizing identity theft, and even learning about potential security threats.

Most digital wallets allow for cashless transactions. However, they make it so that only one banking source is attached to the wallet. What happens when people want to pick and choose which account?

A startup that could be effective is where it’s possible to choose from more financial sources – bank accounts, PayPal, Venmo, and more. Additionally, many people need to pay from more than one source for a single transaction – especially when those transactions are of higher value. By offering more options, people can pay from their mobile devices and have the flexibility they need.

Making payments on a mobile device can be challenging. You are often required to enter your entire credit card number on a small screen. While some apps allow for a scan, it can still be a challenge when your hand shakes.

Using a voice-activated solution can be an ideal startup that can be incorporated by many other fintech tools on the market. Especially if you have experience with natural language recognition, it can provide a valuable tool – and add to the convenience of users.

Charities often don’t provide simple ways of providing online, and some charities are hard to find online altogether. By creating a platform where people can choose what charities they want to give to, you create ease of use.

Often, people donate to more than one charity per year. The platform you create can provide more insight, including what charities, the total donated per year, and even what categories they frequently donate to.

Loans are obtained for all sorts of things – home improvement, travel, mortgages, and other day-to-day needs. Obtaining a loan can be a challenge. By exploring people’s desires to find affordable loan terms, you can develop a fintech startup that allows for loan term comparisons.

Make it so that people can compare the terms of different loan providers and even apply for a loan directly through the app.

Need more inspiration? Check out our list of the top fintech startups to watch.

Insurance can save money, but the premiums can vary dramatically. Many people assume that they have to contact an insurance agent. Place the power into the hands of the consumer.

Work with different insurance companies to allow your tool to get customized premiums. Within the app, consumers could compare premiums so that they can save money on monthly payments. Insurance products can include auto, health, home, renters, life, and more.

The task of managing debt can be overwhelming. While there are many systems out there to help people track the level of debt that they have, many are not properly connected in real time. A fintech startup can focus on managing debt in real time by allowing people to connect to all of their debtors in one place.

Create a platform that allows people to see what the minimum payments are and how much they will pay in interest over time. Allow people to modify their payments virtually to see how quickly they can pay down debt by increasing their payments by certain increments.

The legalization of online sports betting has been increasing in a variety of jurisdictions. Sports enthusiasts and casual bettors alike can benefit from a sports betting app that allows them to tap into a wide array of bets – different sports and even betting opportunities in different parts of the world.

Focus on creating something unique with a better user experience than what’s already on the market. Partner with sports leagues and be regulatory compliant. Even incorporate AI to automatically recommend betting opportunities to the user based on past bets that they have made.

Not everyone wants to bet on sports, but the possibility of betting extends well outside of sports. Creating a fintech app that allows people to explore various novelty (nonsports) betting opportunities can help to tap into a completely unique industry.

Some of the bets that people could place on the app include television ratings, primary/political elections, and even award ceremonies like the Oscars and the Grammys. As long as the app is user-friendly and offers plenty of diverse betting options, it can be successful in tapping into the novelty betting market.

Student loans are a big part of being able to afford college for many – and it’s possible to create an app that allows students to compare all of the different loan providers. This includes both government and private loans.

Through the app, it can be possible to apply for a loan, manage the terms, and even transfer the loan to a new provider. With so many people not knowing what the real cost of student loans is, the startup you launch could offer more transparency.

Many schools don’t offer economy or personal finance classes. Teens graduate high school with no real-world knowledge of bank accounts, credit cards, or how to save for the future. Gamification can make it easier to educate while also helping make it fun to save.

Gamification can be engaging, and when it’s fun, it is likely to be more heavily downloaded. The market is nearly untapped – and it can be a startup that can prove to be profitable when marketed to schools as well as consumers. Even banks may offer gamification within their own apps to help boost the opening of savings accounts.

Real estate investing has always been limited to those who can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. Unfortunately, many investors can’t dedicate that much toward a real estate purchase. 

By breaking up the investment (called “fractional investing”), you can make it possible for multiple people to invest at smaller amounts. Those investments are pooled together so that everyone can partake in the benefits of real estate investments. Partner with real estate developers to get them the investment funds they need by seeking an alternative funding source.

Artificial intelligence is capable of doing a significant amount of research on your behalf. Further, it can understand trends and even the buying and investing behavior of individual users. By combining AI with the investment sector, you can offer a solution to investors of all sizes.

Your app could recommend investing opportunities to the user. The user could identify a few basics about how much they want to spend and what sector they want to be a part of. From there, the app can provide suggestions and even connect the person directly to the investment opportunity.

Financial literacy is a struggle for people of all ages as well as investors and small business owners. You can focus on a fintech startup that teaches financial literacy and offers more financial transparency to a particular audience.

The app should be user-friendly and offer not only training but also tools that will help with basic calculations (interest, profit margins, etc.). For example, you could teach business owners how to understand the profit margins of their company, teach individuals how to create and balance a budget, or show budding investors how to get started making wise, profitable investments.

Peer-to-peer lending is becoming more popular because people don’t want to go through traditional banks. Your fintech startup could allow people to lend to friends or to strangers with set terms, deadlines, and more. Users could pay their loans incrementally or at one time. Even auto-deductions from bank accounts and digital wallets can be included so that the app has more to offer the lender.

Many people don’t know how much they bring in or what their expenses are. With a budget calculator, the information is readily available. By connecting the calculator to their banking apps and other financial tools, they can see in real-time if they are going over in a certain area.

This can eliminate the need to spend hours on a computer or printing out bank statements. The calculator can also be on a mobile app so that people have it available wherever they go to make on-the-spot financial decisions.

Retirement plans are often made too late because people don’t know how to get started. AI can be incorporated into the planner to help people make assumptions based on when they’ll retire, how much money they’ll need per year and more.

Your AI could also make recommendations as to how to boost retirement income. Based on what a person has saved, the tool can be used to suggest an IRA, 401k contributions, and more.

Small businesses often need to focus on revenue streams. Automating the invoicing for products and services eliminates the need for an accounts receivable department. Invoices can be created using a single button. Additionally, reminders can be sent out at pre-set times until the invoice is paid.

You can take this idea one step further by connecting various payment options to the invoice to make it easier for people to pay in a timely manner.

Financial advisors are often expensive and challenging to meet with. An AI bot can be created to provide real-time financial advice to a person. This includes providing the bot with access to a person’s financial accounts – banking, credit, etc.

The financial advisor can help with budget creation, debt minimization, savings, and other things. The bot can also answer questions that individuals may have so that there’s no need to meet with a person.

Small businesses often take several years to break even – and even longer to see a profit. A fintech platform can manage the profits of a business and show charts of how long it will take to break even and turn a profit based on current sales.

The profit manager can suggest where sales should be, how to reduce expenses, and more. By providing more real-time data in front of small business owners, they can quickly become profitable. Consider teaming up with business coaches to see what additional content could be included (or to offer virtual consultations).