The Top Five Fintech Marketplaces

The two-sided marketplace has created some of the fastest-growing startups of the last twenty years. Pioneers like eBay, Airbnb and Uber were all created to connect an underutilized supply with an unmet demand for a product or service using a technology platform. Historically, marketplaces are slow to hit critical mass but take off more steeply and reach milestones more quickly than traditional companies. Why? Marketplaces have unlimited scale and aren’t burdened by the same constraints of conventional transactional businesses like inventory supply and balance sheet. Marketplaces also naturally foster community and create network effects, which make them remarkably viable and defensible.