Top 5 FinTech Pitch Decks That Pulled Millions Of Investments

Photo by Eiliv-Sonas Aceron on Unsplash

Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas. — Paul Samuelson.

Recently, I’ve been dabbling on a pitch deck creation. The purpose of my research is to create a better pitch deck that will captivate investors and clients alike. Upon reading multiple pitch decks that have been submitted to Y Combinator¹, I’ve concluded that there is a certain pitch deck structure and characteristics needed.

For me, I think a pitch deck must contain only the core of what you’re trying to do or achieve. I mean, just keep it short and simple which even a 5 year old could understand. Don’t put any jargon and highlight the important parts like graphs and figures.

Anyways, let’s dive on some pitch decks used and created by well known companies in this day and age.

Coinbase

If you’ve been in the crypto space for a while, I know for sure you’ve heard the name Coinbase. Its one of the top cryptocurrency exchange that is based on US, along with Kraken and BitStamp. The company was founded in 2011 by a former Airbnb engineer named Brian Armstrong. Its first funding came from YCombinator.

This are Coinbase seed round slides presented at Y Combinator’s demo day year 2012.

Fig. 1: Coinbase PD (2012)

Transferwise

For me Transferwise is one of the most cheapest ways to move funds internationally. If you’re a freelancer or a digital remote nomad, I’m sure you’ve come across this money transfer gateway. Transferwise launched in 2011, with the vision of making money transfer affordable, fast, and simple. Both founders were Estonian nationals, Taavet is a former Skype employee and Kristo is from Deloitte.

This is one of their first ever crafted pitch deck that was presented in London for seed investors.

Fig. 2: Transferwise PD (2011)

Square

Been a merchant before? I’m sure you’ve seen this payment gateway. Square or Square, Inc. which is based in US soil offers financial services and wholly a merchant services aggregator. The main product of the company is selling hardware and software products, focusing on easing the payment process. The company was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey, releasing its full product offering in 2010.

Here is one of the earliest version of their pitch deck that was used in 2010.

Fig. 2: Square PD (2010)

Revolut

A digital bank located in the heart of United Kingdom (London). This company offers banking services, it first offered easy and convenient fiat currency exchange service. After a few years transformed into a full pledged banking, the company was founded by Nikolay Storonsky in year 2015.

This is the first ever revision of its pitch deck presented to early London angel investors.

Fig. 3: Revolut PD (2010)

N26

One of the first ever pure digital bank or so called a neobank in Europe. N26 is FinTech² company based in Berlin, Germany. The N26 name was derived from the 26 side of Rubik’s cube according to Wikipedia.

Here is the pitch deck presented by Valentin in 2016 NOAH Conference that happened in London.

Fig. 4: N26 PD (2016)

Monzo

In 2015, Monzo was founded by Tom Blomfield. Similar to N26 and Revolut, it offers banking services in Europe. It started its services in London then expanded in whole Europe, its first product offer is a loadable prepaid card then transition to full banking experience.

Here is the pitch deck presented to venture capital in 2017.

Fig. 5: Monzo PD (2017)

Conclusion

Creating pitch decks is a fun experience, the contents of the deck depends on where you want to present it (e.g. Investors, Clients, Venture Capital, Consumers). It really depends what agenda you are trying to push to the end reader. Also for me the pitch deck is different from the presentation slide, try to listen to this video presentation on how to present keynotes.

1. Y Combinator is an American seed money startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch over 2,000 companies, including Stripe, Airbnb, Cruise Automation, DoorDash, Coinbase, Instacart, Dropbox, Twitch, and Reddit.
2. Financial technology is the technology and innovation that aims to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. It is an emerging industry that uses technology to improve activities in finance.