FinTech Investment and Application

FINTECH ARTICLES OF THE WEEK 03/18/16

Whether the FinTech market is in its early stages or past its peak, depending on the report you read, investors are still betting on it, as a report from KPMG and CBInsights shows. In terms of use, the market is clearly in the innovator-to-early adopter stages of the classic diffusion of innovations theory. This week also brings a more thoughtful treatment of FinTech in terms of the theory of disruptive innovation.

The pulse of FinTech

KPMG and CBInsights released their 2015 investment overview, showing record VC investment of $19.1 billion in 2015, with $13.8 billion invested in venture-backed firms, a 106% increase from 2014. “The force of change is becoming impossible to ignore, with mobile-enabled consumers having more options than ever. The rising tide of millennials is demanding more personalized and convenient services” while being “more interested in advice from friends, family and their social networks than they are from corporate financial advisers.”

20 FinTech products that millennials love

Once the investments are made, the products should follow. If you want to appeal to millennials, offer products specifically designed and built for them. Let’s Talk Payments provides summaries of 20 FinTech apps from four countries that do just that.

How to avoid simplistic conversations on disruption

Peter Vander Auwera, co-founder of Innotribe: SWIFT‘s innovation initiative, suggests the “how” of FinTech adoption has become as important as the “wow” of disruption. As a spoiler to a thoughtful, well-reasoned post, Mr. Vander Auwera concludes and advises: “So next time, when I hear you pitch about disruption, the end of banks/banking, collaboration/co-operation, or one or the other technology solving world hunger, please make sure you have an answer on how to get to your new destination. I would suggest you keep forward compatibility in mind.”

Size matters in FinTech

The fuel that powers FinTech firms–data–is getting increasingly expensive, particularly for those involved in trading and securities markets. As Serena Torielli, founder of an investment advisory firm, laments, “while the direct costs of trading have gone down in recent years, the unit costs of data has increased despite continued improvements in technology in all major markets.”

Almost everyone is doing the API economy wrong

“Sadly, we see two things today when it comes to APIs: either the closed “partner-only’’ API model, where a company announces with some fanfare that it now has APIs, but you can’t use them unless you’re very important, or the mildly less-depressing situation where a company launches a technically great API, but does so with no developer business model,” writes Ed Anuff, the senior vice president of strategy at Apigee in TechCrunch. “Developers will inevitably game any monetization system; you need to make sure their incentives are aligned with delivering a great experience to your users first and foremost.”