Fintech
By SuperdayReps · Wharton MBA · ex-Greenhill · investment banking interview coaching
18 min read · updated October 10, 2026
A fintech interview is mostly the standard first round. The three statements, a DCF, terminal value, WACC, enterprise value against equity value, and the valuation methods all still come up, and they are covered in the range of technicals and the lessons under it.
What is different about fintech is that the word describes how a service is delivered, not how the company makes money. A payments processor, a consumer lender, a trading app and a piece of banking software can all be called fintech, and financially they have little in common. So the sector layer opens with a sorting question.
The FIG lesson already makes the main point in one line: a fintech that earns fees values like a normal company, and a card issuer that is itself a bank values like a bank. This lesson is about everything between those two sentences.
Two ideas carry fintech. First, ask where the profit comes from. If it is fees on volume or subscriptions, the company is an operating business and the normal tools work. If it is the spread on loans the company holds itself, it is a lender wearing an app, and it values like a bank. Second, because so many fintechs are not yet profitable, revenue multiples are common, and revenue means different things at different companies. A banker who compares them on gross profit, or on revenue after what is passed straight through, avoids the most common mistake in the sector.
The map
Interviewers often open with how fintechs make money. There are a handful of models, and most companies are one of these or a mix.
| Model | Examples | How it makes money | How it is valued |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card networks | Visa, Mastercard | A small fee on every transaction that runs on the network | P / E and EV / EBITDA, at high multiples; no credit risk |
| Merchant acquirers and processors | Global Payments, Fiserv, Adyen, Stripe | A cut of each payment a merchant accepts | EV / EBITDA, EV / Gross Profit, sometimes EV / payment volume |
| Wallets and money transfer | PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, remittance apps | Transaction and instant transfer fees, card fees, foreign exchange spread | EV / Revenue or EV / Gross Profit, EV / EBITDA once profitable |
| Neobanks | Chime, Revolut, Nubank | Card fees at first, then net interest once they hold a charter | Revenue multiples early; like a bank once lending matters |
| Online lenders and buy now pay later | LendingClub, SoFi, Affirm, Klarna | Interest, origination fees, merchant fees | Depends who holds the loans: like a bank if they do |
| Brokerage and wealth apps | Robinhood, robo-advisors | Interest on client cash, order flow payments, subscriptions, fees on assets | P / E and EV / EBITDA; EV / assets for robo-advisors |
| Fintech software | Core banking systems, compliance software, expense tools | Subscriptions and usage fees | Like SaaS; see the technology lesson |
The fee models share one shape: the company sits on a flow of money and keeps a small slice, so revenue is a volume times a rate, and the operating metrics are volumes. The test to say out loud is the one from the FIG lesson: look at the revenue lines and ask how much of the profit comes from the balance sheet. A company can look like an app and still be a lender.
Keep reading
The rest of this lesson is free with an account
There's about 14 more minutes of Fintech below this, plus every other lesson in Coverage Banking. Free account, no card.
Any partner school .edu
Frequently asked
- What questions do fintech investment banking interviews ask?
- The standard first round plus a sector layer. The sector layer is how fintech companies make money, which ones value like normal companies and which like banks, how the card payment chain splits a merchant's fee, what take rate and total payment volume are, why revenue multiples are common and when gross profit is the better base, how a lender that sells its loans differs from one that holds them, the credit risk in buy now pay later, how a neobank without a banking licence works, and how a free consumer app earns back what it costs to win a customer.
- How do you value a fintech company?
- First decide what it is. A fintech that earns fees on volume or subscriptions, such as a payments processor or a software vendor, is valued like any operating company, with EV / EBITDA, P / E and an unlevered DCF, or on forward EV / Revenue or EV / Gross Profit if it is growing fast and not yet profitable. A fintech whose profit comes from lending its own balance sheet is closer to a bank or a specialty lender and is valued on P / E, price to tangible book and return on equity.
- What is a take rate in payments?
- The share of payment volume a company keeps as revenue, so revenue divided by total payment volume. A processor that earns 25 cents on every 100 dollars it handles has a take rate of 0.25 percent. It only compares cleanly between companies that report revenue the same way, because some report it before paying card fees to the issuing bank and network and some report it after.
- Is a neobank a bank?
- Often not, at least at first. Many neobanks hold no banking licence and offer accounts through a partner bank, which holds the deposits and issues the debit cards, while the neobank owns the app and the customer. Until it has its own charter it mostly earns card fees, and cannot lend out the deposits. Some get a charter, either by applying or by buying a small bank, and then they are regulated and valued much more like a bank.
LearnAI