Six Entrepreneurs Making Their Fintech 50 Debut In 2025

Their startups do everything from using AI to fight fraud, to helping caregivers manage money for those with dementia. Five of the six are immigrants.

_{By Francesca Walton, Forbes Staff}

Inthe 10 years since Forbes launched its first Fintech 50 list, we’ve always kept an eye out for new ideas and entrepreneurs, while also showcasing powerhouse private companies that continue to make a big impact on the industry.

There are an impressive 18 first-timers on 2025’s list. They represent a mix of relatively new startups and those whose products are finally breaking through after their founders plugged away for a decade or more.

The CEOs of six standout newcomers are profiled below. In each case, the CEO is also a cofounder, except for one sole founder/CEO–Increase’s Darragh Buckley, a 40-year-old MIT trained engineer who was the first employee of Stripe. He’s unusual in other ways, too. Since starting Increase in 2020, he has funded it entirely himself, with the sale of stock in Stripe, the most valuable company on the Fintech 50. And he didn’t locate his company in a fintech hotbed like California or New York, but in Bend, Oregon, where he had moved to start a family. What is typical about Increase is that it operates behind the scenes, making the gears of finance mesh more smoothly–it helps 4,500 customers (small and midsize banks and fintechs) better connect with payment networks.

Another new-to-the-list entrepreneur helping financial players behind the scenes is Yinglian Xie, 48, CEO and a cofounder of DataVisor, which fights fraud by using AI to detect connections between groups of scamsters. She cofounded DataVisor back in 2013. The company, with such clients as SoFi and Affirm, saw its revenue surge 67% to $50 million last year. Talk about being ahead of the curve–after graduating at the top of her computer science class at Peking University, Xie earned a PhD at Carnegie Mellon with a thesis on enhancing digital security.

Another CEO/cofounder who has been plugging away for more than a decade is Kai Stinchcombe, 42, who launched True Link Financial in 2013 after his grandmother, who had dementia, lost thousands to scammers. True Link’s first product is a debit card designed for those with cognitive deficits; a caregiver with financial powers can set specific limits on how and where that card is used.The card has grown to 157,000 active users. Meanwhile, Stinchcombe has launched an investment advisory arm that now manages more than $1 billion for special needs and other trusts.

Of the six CEO only Stinchcombe was born in the United States, but all their companies are based here. To be eligible for the Fintech 50 list, a startup must have either its headquarters or significant operations in the U.S. and can’t be part of a public company.

Here are six CEO founders whose startups made the Fintech 50 list for the first time in 2025:

INCREASE

Founder and CEO: Darragh Buckley, 40

In 2010, Buckley became the first employee of Stripe—he had known founders Patrick and John Collison growing up in Limerick, Ireland, and reconnected with them while earning an MIT engineering degree. He quit in 2016 and later moved to Bend, Oregon, to start a family and ponder his next step. In 2020, he launched Increase, financing it by selling some of his stock in Stripe, the most valuable company on the Fintech 50. Increase’s tech helps 4,500 customers (small and midsize banks and fintechs) better connect with FedACH, Fedwire, Visa and other payment networks. Buckley expects his 16-employee company to turn profitable this year.

NALA

Cofounder and CEO: Benjamin Fernandes, 32

At just 17, Tanzania-born Fernandes became a host at a TV network run by his preacher parents, covering the 2012 Olympics and 2014 World Cup. Shifting gears, he earned a Stanford MBA and in 2018 founded Nala to speed money transfers within Tanzania. After setbacks, he relaunched it as a service enabling African migrants in the U.S. and Europe to send money back home. Nala’s customer base more than doubled to 670,000 last year, and it raised $40 million at a $250 million valuation.

AVEN

Cofounder and CEO: Sadi Khan, 39

Bangladesh-born, Canada-educated Khan spent a decade at Microsoft and Meta before launching Aven in 2020. He then spent 18 months developing his product: a credit card grafted onto a home equity line of credit (Heloc). Using consumers’ homes as collateral, Aven offers a lower interest rate than on a normal credit card, while its tech shrinks the normal Heloc approval time (cards typically arrive in a week). Last year, Aven raised $140 million at a $1 billion valuation. It has more than 30,000 customers (most earning at least $100,000 a year) and hit $200 million in revenue on an annualized basis in 2024.

BRICO

Cofounder and CEO: Snigdha Kumar, 33

Mumbai native Kumar worked as a financial services consultant in India before earning a master’s from Harvard in public policy. She then spent five years at San Francisco fintech Digit (now Oportun), rising to head of product operations. In 2023, she left to start Brico with the aim of automating the cumbersome state-by-state licensing process for fintechs and other nonbank financial players such as money transmitters, lenders and debt collectors. Brico has raised $8 million in seed financing and has 30 customers, including Marqeta and Bilt.

TRUE LINK FINANCIAL

Cofounder and CEO: Kai Stinchcombe, 42

With a background in public policy startups, Stinchcombe launched True Link in 2013 after his grandmother, who had dementia, lost thousands to scammers. Its prepaid Visa debit card, with 157,000 active users, is uniquely designed for those with cognitive disabilities; spending limits can be set and monitored by someone managing the cardholder’s finances. True Link’s registered investment advisory arm manages more than $1 billion for special-needs trusts. With $60 million in VC backing from Khosla Ventures, QED Investors and others, True Link earned a $2 million profit on $30 million in 2024 revenue.

DATAVISOR

Cofounder and CEO: Yinglian Xie, 48

Since emigrating from China to earn her Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon (her 2005 thesis was on enhancing digital security), Xie has spent her career, including seven years at Microsoft, fighting fraud. In 2013 she founded DataVisor and now has 50 customers, including banks and fintechs like SoFi and Affirm, which use its machine-learning algorithms to catch fraudulent payments, wire transfers and loan applications. Its AI detects connections between accounts to block groups of scammers. “Pretty much all of today’s major attacks are coming from these coordinated fraud rings,” Xie says. DataVisor’s revenue grew 67% to $50 million in 2024.

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