Performance evaluation of financial technology companies

Major developments in information and communication technologies, rapid development and spread of internet technologies, and innovative approaches in the sector have greatly affected the field of finance and banking. As a result of these developments, the "FinTech" sector emerged and FinTech companies have caused fundamental changes in the field of finance. With their dynamic and customer-oriented structures, innovative approaches and innovative business models, FinTech companies have gained an important place in the sector. FinTech companies can be defined as companies that offer financial products and services in a faster, easier and more efficient way with innovative methods and make use of technology while doing these. FinTech companies operate in many different sectors and sub-sectors such as banking, finance, stock exchange, online payment, investment, finance management, asset management, corporate finance, insurance, rating and crowdfunding. FinTech companies, especially after the 2008 global economic crisis, have received huge investments and grown rapidly around the world. Thanks to the important developments and large investments in the sector, FinTech companies have made a great impact in the sector as important competitors against traditional financial companies. On the other hand, large technology companies that see the financial sector as a new source of income are also competitors of FinTech companies. In recent years, the competition between actors in the financial sector has intensified. In this intense and tough competitive environment, FinTech companies are in an effort to develop and grow while competing with both traditional financial companies and large technology companies that have entered the financial sector. In a rapidly developing sector, where competition is intense and challenging, efficiency is a very important performance indicator for fintech companies which are trying to compete with large financial and technology companies. Guiding in determining the current situation and making future plans, measuring the efficiency of fintech companies is a very important process for fintech companies to gain a sustainable competitive advantage over their competitors. In this context, it is aimed to measure and examine the efficiency performance of FinTech companies in this dissertation. Data Envelopment Analysis was used in the efficiency measurement process. Data Envelopment Analysis is a method used to measure the efficiency of similar units that transform more than one input into more than one output. By establishing a two-stage data envelopment analysis model, the "profitability", "marketability" and "overall process" efficiencies of fintech companies are measured and analyzed. The analysis included fintech companies in the KBW Nasdaq Financial Technology Index, which is designed to monitor the performance of publicly traded financial technology companies in the United States of Amerika. While conducting the Data Envelopment Analysis, in the first stage, efficiency measurements were made by taking all fintech companies included in the sample together. Then, the fintech companies included in the sample were divided into sub-sectors and efficiency measurement and analysis were made based on sub-sectors.