Just been looking at two fintech plays that could be solid moves if you're thinking about how to invest $1000 right now. Both companies are printing money while actually growing their user base, which is pretty rare these days.

First up is Robinhood. The trading app has over 27 million funded accounts at this point, and they're still pulling in new users—7% growth year over year. What caught my attention though is that they're making more per user too, with average revenue per user up 16% YoY. When you can do both at the same time, that's the sweet spot.

Their Q4 numbers showed 27% revenue growth overall. The stock and options side is crushing it. Crypto revenue took a hit last year—down 38%—but honestly that makes sense given Bitcoin's pullback. The thing is, when BTC was recovering in Q3 they did 8.5 billion event contract trades. January alone hit 3.4 billion. That's their prediction markets business, and it's becoming a real growth driver. Even with Bitcoin currently sitting around $74.34K, if it finds momentum again, that segment could explode.

Robinhood's down over 30% year to date, which feels like a decent entry point if you believe in the long-term thesis.

Then there's Nu Holdings. They're basically the banking backbone of Latin America now—completely online, no branches, which means way better margins and cheaper products. They're in 60% of Brazilian households and expanding hard into Mexico and Colombia.

Their growth is legitimately impressive. Q3 saw 39% revenue growth YoY, and they added 4 million new customers to hit 127 million total. Here's what matters though: their activity rate is 83%, meaning most of these people are actually using the platform to save, invest, and borrow. That's not vanity metrics.

Credit cards and loans grew 45% YoY, while their interest-earning portfolios jumped 58%. And they're profitable while doing it—net income up 41% from 2024, with a 41% net profit margin. That's the kind of combo you want to see.

If you're asking how to invest $1000 in growth fintech right now, these two check the boxes: rising revenue, rising margins, and they're actually solving real problems in their markets. Both have momentum that could compound over the next few years. Worth doing your own research, but I'm keeping these on my radar.