Assignment - The Old and The New in Fintech

Fintech 101
#123

Pay
SumUp: Headquartered in London, supports more than 3.5 million merchants in over 30 markets worldwide, and operates a product suite of tailor-made business tools created specifically for the micro and nano-segment. It works in the same way that Square, with a pocket size device to receive payments from credit or debit cards.

Invest
Freetrade: develops a fee-free platform for investing in stocks and funds.
With more than 1m users at present, the company aims to make investing simpler and more affordable for retail customers via its mobile app.

Borrow
Nexo: allows you to borrow against your crypto assets held in the platform.
It currently manages assets for 5М+ users across 200 jurisdictions.

Save
Moneybox: develops an award-winning mobile app that provides easy access to shares and savings ISAs.
The app combines savings, home-buying, retirement services and investments into one app, thereby helping users with financial planning.

Lend
Prodigy Finance: operates a global platform which provides loans to people studying for a Master’s degree abroad.
It’s funded by institutional and private investors, with bonds created to fund classes of students being listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, Alumni, impact funds and high-net-worth individuals can then invest in loans.

Insure
Peppercorn: provides a digital, personalized, and automated car insurance service to its customers, combines underwriting rules, technology, cutting-edge data, AI and a re-imagined CX to deliver a self-service lower cost product to the marketplace.
First UK Insurtech to get EIS relief.

The UK and Europe are flooded by Fintechs focusing on payments, investing, saving and insurance or a combination of these, who compete with one another in an oversaturated market where new startups burn too much cash too quickly and the good old times of raising hundreds of millions with no special effort are gone.

Nevertheless, there’s a massive opportunity in the borrowing and lending space and with crypto and blockchain technology both come by hand through a peer to peer method of transacting finances.
Little or loads, anybody can borrow and lend in an open system where nobody is discriminated by the size of their financial influence thanks to these technologies. The protocols built today and deployed tomorrow are the ones which will make this reality possible.

#124

• Make a screening of existing fintechs in your region using google and map out which kind of banks they are focusing on.

• Number of Organizations 490

• Industries FinTech

• Industry Groups Financial Services

• Location Florida, United States, North America

• CB Rank (Hub) 44,175

• Number of Founders 563

• Average Founded Date Oct 9, 2014

• Percentage Acquired 5%

• Percentage of Public Organizations 1%

• Percentage Non-Profit 0%

• Number of For-Profit Companies 488

• Number of Non-profit Companies 1

• Top Investor Types Venture Capital, Corporate Venture Capital, Investment Bank, Micro VC, Accelerator

• Top Funding Types Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A, Venture - Series Unknown, Debt Financing

Organizations in this hub have their headquarters located in Florida, United States, North America; notable events and people located in Florida are also included.

This list of companies and startups in Florida in the fintech space provides data on their funding history, investment activities, and acquisition trends. Insights about top trending

Organizations in this hub have their headquarters located in Florida, United States, North America; notable events and people located in Florida are also included.

This list of companies and startups in Florida in the fintech space provides data on their funding history, investment activities, and acquisition trends. Insights about top trending companies, startups, investments and M&A activities, notable investors of these companies, their management team, and recent news are also included.

• Estimate the areas that are currently underserved in your region (in other words, where the opportunities are)

both regtech and AI adoption in fintech are on the rise. The key to raising funding as a fintech startup in 2023 won’t be caution and prudence: it will be developing products people will use in line with the latest global trends of fintech.

There will be a growing need for flexible financial interactions. A McKinsey study shows that almost every American prefers a flexible or fully remote environment to office work, and this flexibility will be expected from all things, fintech included. Fintech products must be easily accessible from any device, integrate with other platforms, and provide a seamless shopping/banking/financial management experience.

The need for a fintech product to be modular, flexible, and easily adjustable. Enter microservices: one way a fintech startup can remain open to integrating any new fintech trend.

#125

From Sweden here, there’s just too many fintech companies to cover, there’s 509 of them 2021. However, to be brief, all kinds of sectors are covered, including the crypto sector. However, something that I believe to be lacking is a sector which helps people onboard into investing. Especially human interaction based ones. People got tons of questions nad hesitations regarding investing into cryptocurrencies and simple internet blogs or videos doesn’t cut it for a lot of people. Thinking that area may be a good point to look into.

A brief overview of number of companies in different sectors

  • Payment and transfer 105 companies

  • Wealth and Cash management 100 companies

  • Capital equity 83 companies
    .
    .
    .

  • DeFi 13 companies

image
image876×422 146 KB

#126

  • Make a screening of existing fintechs in your region using google and map out which kind of banks they are focusing on.
    In this chart from 2022: https://insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com/breakdown-of-the-european-fintech-landscape-2022
    we see:
    806 on investment/savings
    797 on lending and borrowing
    Insuretech is at 208
    payments at 752

  • Estimate the areas that are currently underserved in your region (in other words, where the opportunities are)
    I think insurance has been under served. Insurance is harder to crack as compared to the banking sector because everyone hates insurance, the regulations seem even higher than banking, you have limited contact with the insurer and the insurers have a treasure chest that they deploy everytime a new comer tickles them.

#127

Fintech Screening & Market Opportunity Analysis in the EU

Existing Fintechs & Their Focus

  1. Retail & Challenger Banks (Neo Banks)

    • Revolut (UK) :uk: – Offers multi-currency accounts, crypto trading, and stock investments.
    • N26 (Germany) :de: – Digital banking with budgeting tools and seamless mobile experience.
    • Bunq (Netherlands) :netherlands: – Focuses on sustainability, allowing users to invest deposits in eco-friendly projects.

  2. Commercial & SME Banking

    • Qonto (France) :fr: – Business banking with automation tools for invoices and expenses.
    • Holvi (Finland) :finland: – Business accounts with integrated bookkeeping for freelancers and SMEs.

  3. Investment & WealthTech

    • Trade Republic (Germany) :de: – A commission free trading platform for stocks, ETFs, and crypto.
    • Scalable Capital (Germany) :de:– AI-powered wealth management and investment automation.

  4. Lending & Borrow Solutions

    • Klarna (Sweden) :sweden:– (BNPL) solutions for consumers.
    • Zopa (UK) :uk: – Pioneered peer-to-peer lending before becoming a digital bank.

  5. RegTech

    • ComplyAdvantage (UK) :uk: – AI-driven fraud detection and anti laundering (AML) compliance.
    • IDnow (Germany) :de: – Digital identity verification and KYC solutions.

  6. Crypto & Tokenization Platforms

    • Bitpanda (Austria) :austria: – Digital asset exchange offering stocks, crypto, and precious metals.
    • Monerium (Iceland) :iceland: – Issues tokenized e cash on blockchain, bridging traditional finance with DeFi.

Underserved Areas & Future Opportunities in EU Fintech

  1. Tokenized Assets & DeFi-Powered Banking

    • Traditional banking limits access to wealth building assets.
    • Opportunity: A tokenized asset platform offering real estate, renewable energy projects (solar farms), and commodities as investment options.
    • Key Players to Watch: Monerium, Bitpanda

  2. Cross-Border Financial Services & Payments

    • Fragmented EU banking makes transfers slow and expensive.
    • Opportunity: A fintech driven remittance & payment system using stablecoins or digital euro integration.
    • Key Players to Watch: Wise, Revolut

  3. SME & Freelancer Banking Solutions

    • Many EU countries lack financial products tailored for freelancers & startups.
    • Opportunity: A banking platform for freelancers & remote workers with tax automation & instant invoicing.
    • Key Players to Watch: Qonto, Holvi, Stripe Treasury

  4. Green & Impact Finance (Sustainable Investments)

    • Limited fintech platforms allow direct investment in ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) projects.
    • Opportunity: Tokenized sustainability investments (funding solar farms, carbon tokens, green bonds).
    • Key Players to Watch: Bunq (small scale), Swappable, Venly (tokenized assets)

  5. RegTech for DeFi & Crypto Compliance

    • EU’s MiCA regulations will force crypto firms to comply with stricter rules.
    • Opportunity: A RegTech solution for on chain compliance & fraud prevention targeting DeFi projects.
    • Key Players to Watch: ComplyAdvantage, Chainalysis

Conclusion

  • Tokenized assets and DeFi integration will disrupt traditional finance.
  • Green finance and freelancer banking are massive untapped opportunities.
  • RegTech & compliance solutions will be critical as EU regulations evolve.