Finovate, Friends & Free: 3 Fintechs Financial Service Providers Should Know Now

Financial services vendors should be watching & partnering with these fintechs - and others like them. They are solving problems and using emerging technologies to do it.

Photo by Ankush Minda on Unsplash

For the first time in several years, I went to Finovate NYC in September. A few things came out of that visit.

1. I was on a great panel How Will New Competitors And New Business Models Shape The Future Of Payments? How Will Open Banking & Embedded Payments Change The Competitive Landscape? that included bankers, VC, fintech, regulators as well as an industry analyst.

2. I met many fabulous fintech folk in person - including Theo, Alex, Jim, Efi, John, Barb, Tiffani, Kristiane & Heather. I still haven’t met Clagett in person.

3. Barb, Efi, Jim & I started a fintech book club livestream. You can join us on Friday, February 16, 2024 at 10:00 am EST when we discuss Leda Glyptis PhD's book "Bankers Like Us: Dispatches from an Industry in Transition."

4. I wrote a piece over at Third Eye Advisory: “3 Fintechs Financial Services Vendors Should Know Today.”

While I was at Finovate, I saw 3 fintechs that I believe financial services vendors should be watching - and partnering with. A taste of my analysis:

• Fintechs leverage other vertical industries to create new and disruptive capabilities.

  Fintechs increasingly use a mix of technologies from embedded banking/payments to Generative AI and data analytics to create solutions.

Of course there were many other fintechs that demo’d and were in the exhibition hall. These three, I think, represent what disruptive fintechs are doing now and how they and others will be disrupting going forward.

Don’t be satisfied by this small taste! You can download the entire research piece for free here at Third Eye Advisory. Want to talk about it or any other strategic questions you have about fintech? I’m also available for inquiry and strategy sessions via Third Eye Advisory.

Who writes PivotAssets?

I’m an independent analyst, strategic advisor & consultant (& a former Gartner analyst). I’ve worked in and covered the banking industry for over 2 decades. I write about digital banking in this newsletter - not to confirm what you know (and you are plenty smart!) but to give you a fresh perspective & analysis on the transformation that is —and isn’t happening - in the industry.

How can I help you?

To collaborate with me on a similar project or something else completely different whether an analysis of your GTM stragey, analyst briefing presentation, a webinar series, podcast, panel, please contact me at stessa@pivotassets.co or via LinkedIn.

I’m also available for inquiry and strategy sessions via Third Eye Advisory.

Me, Elsewhere

• I’m an expert advisor at Third Eye Advisory.

  I spoke with Theodora Lau and Barb Maclean on their podcast One Vision about smart banking & hidden tribes

  I moderated a great panel of folks for a conversation on innovation. We cut through the hype and share practical advice for making your digital transformation efforts pay off. We definitely talked about the importance of small innovations.

  How can banks be truly low friction? They must address friction everywhere. Otherwise innovation & digital transformation will elude them. In this report I identified the characteristic of a low friction bank and why legacy core banking and architectures don’t support it.

  What can the Kardashians teach your financial institution about partnerships and innovation? How can working with empathic fintechs help you identify niche groups (aka hidden tribes) and innovate. All this and more in this this ebook that you can download at Praxent or Nymbus.

  Adopt an Agile Digital Banking Platform: How bankers must have an agile digital banking platform to support both global and local trends and requirements to help them identify new niche markets that will drive innovation, create new value and increase profitability. In this report I identified a set of capabilities that a digital banking platform must have that will help take banks into a competitive future and urges banks to select a digital banking partner who shares their innovation, vision and support for new value creation.

Yes, I worked with clients on these ebooks and webinars. They may ask you for information before you can download or watch them.