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FORTUNE.COM // NOVEMBER 2019
Atlassian
6 AUSTRALIA (TEAM, $127)
THE AUSTRALIAN ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE FIRM has a “perhaps unrivaled focus on
product innovation,” according to Morgan Stanley. It has laid the ground-
work for its rapidly growing software-as-a-service platform by moving its
workloads to Amazon Web Services and rewriting programs to better support
scalability. Atlassian also eschews a traditional sales model—instead deploy-
ing a “viral,” online-oriented marketing strategy that keeps costs low. But
like most enterprise software firms, intensifying competition from counter-
parts is a risk factor going forward.Square
2 U.S. (SQ, $62)
THOUGH SHARES are
down 16% over the
past 12 months and
profits remain elusive,
revenue jumped
nearly 50% in 2018
to $3.3 billion. Square
is working to attract
larger companies to
its payments platform,
and has also expanded
into Bitcoin trading
and CBD transactions.PayPal
24 U.S. (PYPL, $100)
Cash is no longer king:
PayPal is accepted by
77% of the top 500
U.S. Internet retailers,
while its hugely popular
Venmo app is now syn-
onymous with mobile
money transfers.
Visa
43 U.S. (V, $175)
Visa, the largest U.S.
credit card network by
transactions and cards
in circulation, contin-
ues to thrive, with prof-
its up 33% to $3.1 bil-
lion last quarter. In
June it launched Visa
B2B Connect for banks
to process cross-
border payments, and
in September it did a
deal with London-
based fintech Revolut.
T HE FU TURE 50 —THE LIS T
DESIGN
TECH
FINTECH
Futuristic: Employees at Atlassian’s Sydney headquarters.