We love seeing alums called out in the numerous “most innovative” articles. Usually, those skew to young private startups. But the recent Forbes list of innovators, limited to large public companies (minimum market cap = $10 billion, with 7 years of public ownership), didn’t disappoint. Four financial technology companies made the top-100 list, and all four have appeared on the Finovate stage. Interestingly, financial services firms are excluded by Forbes on the grounds that they “have no measurable investment in R&D.” (I am sure many readers would argue that point).
Here are the financial fab-four in order of their finish (the innovation premium is the extra value investors place on their growth vs. their enterprise value, methodology):
- #27 Visa with a 55% innovation premium (Finovate ’10 demo video)
- #30 MasterCard with a 54% premium (Finovate ’14 demo video)
- #71 Experian with a 43% premium (Finovate ’12 demo)
- #84 Equifax with a 41% premium (Finovate ’11 demo video)
Note: Experian will be showing its latest tech at Finovate this week as well (sneak peek)