Three Best Fintech Stocks for Growth Investors Now

The financial technology sector continues to present compelling opportunities as the convergence of digital innovation and traditional banking accelerates. While fintech has matured considerably, the underlying fundamentals suggest that several key players remain significantly undervalued. Here are three best fintech stocks worthy of consideration for investors seeking exposure to this transformative industry.

SoFi Technologies: Built for the Digital-First Era

The migration to digital banking has become the defining trend reshaping the financial services landscape. According to data from the American Bankers Association’s recent survey, the shift is undeniable: 54% of U.S. bank customers now rely primarily on mobile banking applications, with an additional 22% preferring desktop platforms. Branch visits and phone support have become peripheral, accounting for only 9% and 4% of customer interactions respectively.

SoFi Technologies has positioned itself at the vanguard of this transformation. Unlike traditional banks retrofitting digital services, the company was architecturally designed from inception as an online-only platform. The company’s trajectory since 2019—when it operated primarily as a student loan refinancing service with 704,000 users—demonstrates the potential of this strategy. Today, SoFi boasts over 12.6 million customers, a remarkable expansion reflecting genuine market demand.

This growth narrative, while impressive on its surface, masks even greater opportunity. With 260 million digitally-native adults in the U.S., SoFi captures less than 5% of the addressable market. Furthermore, the majority of existing customers maintain fewer than two product relationships with the platform, indicating substantial potential for wallet expansion and deeper customer penetration.

PayPal: Bridging Sentiment and Fundamentals

PayPal presents a classic case study of market pessimism disconnected from operational reality. The stock’s performance since its 2021 peak would suggest business deterioration, yet the company is tracking toward $33.3 billion in revenue this fiscal year—positioning it for another record-setting annual result. More compelling still, profitability metrics are nearly eclipsing the 2021 peak that marked the post-pandemic pinnacle.

The gap between perception and performance warrants examination. Market participants cite various threats: cryptocurrency displacement, heightened competition from both traditional financial institutions and specialized digital platforms like Block and Stripe, and the emergence of alternatives such as Zelle. Yet PayPal’s competitive moat remains formidable—it controls approximately 50% of global online payment market share, a position it has maintained despite competitive pressures.

The analyst consensus envisions a multi-year expansion runway. Wall Street expects the company to generate $41 billion in revenue by 2028, translating to $5.8 billion in net income. At current valuations—trading below 10 times projected 2026 earnings of $5.79 per share and 24% below the consensus price target of $73.94—the risk-reward profile appears favorable for investors willing to challenge prevailing sentiment.

Upstart: AI-Driven Credit Assessment at an Inflection Point

Upstart represents a paradigm shift in credit evaluation methodology. The platform leverages artificial intelligence algorithms to assess creditworthiness, a fundamental departure from legacy credit scoring models employed by incumbents like Equifax and TransUnion. What distinguishes Upstart isn’t merely technological sophistication; it’s the engineering architecture itself. Founded in 2012 by former Google executive Dave Girouard alongside computer scientist Paul Gu and entrepreneur Anna Counselman, the platform was constructed as if credit scoring were being reimagined from first principles.

The results speak decisively: Upstart’s algorithm enables 43% greater loan approval volumes without increasing default rates—a remarkable efficiency gain. Approximately 90% of approvals occur through full automation, reducing friction and costs throughout the lending ecosystem. This value proposition has attracted over 100 financial institutions to deploy the platform.

The stock’s performance has proven volatile, surging during pandemic-driven lending growth before declining sharply in 2022. Yet this volatility reflects the algorithm functioning precisely as designed. When economic headwinds emerged in 2025, the platform appropriately tightened approval rates—protecting lenders while acknowledging macroeconomic uncertainty. This self-regulating mechanism demonstrates genuine protective value.

What the recent market weakness obscures is fundamental business acceleration. Through the first three quarters of 2025, Upstart processed loan volumes that doubled year-over-year, while loan conversion rates expanded from 15.3% to 21.2%—indicating both operational leverage and improved capital efficiency. These metrics suggest the company stands at a genuine business inflection point that the market has yet to price appropriately.

The Case for Fintech Growth Investing

These three enterprises represent distinct investment angles within the fintech ecosystem—direct banking disruption, payment network dominance, and credit intermediation transformation. Collectively, they capture the core drivers reshaping financial services: technology-enabled efficiency, customer preference migration, and data-driven decision making.

For investors evaluating fintech sector exposure, these best fintech stocks merit serious analytical consideration. The combination of solid fundamental improvements, favorable valuation dynamics, and substantial long-term growth runways creates a compelling investment thesis for those with sufficient time horizons to weather near-term volatility.

Historical precedent matters here. When Netflix entered the Motley Fool’s recommended list on December 17, 2004, a $1,000 investment would have appreciated to $487,089 by January 2026. Similarly, Nvidia’s April 15, 2005 recommendation converted $1,000 into $1,139,053 over the same extended timeline. While past results guarantee nothing about future performance, these examples underscore how recognition of transformative industry trends can generate substantial shareholder returns over meaningful time horizons.