We cannot avoid the fact that the world is in the grip of a FinTech revolution. The exponential change of the technological environment that we are experiencing makes financial sector changes more complicated and diverse than ever.
How did all this happen? What exactly presents FinTech advantages over the traditional financial sector?
As we may assume, it brings us to the question of implemented technologies and opens a new page of tremendous secret of FinTech success. Innovative and fast changing technologies as Big Data Analytics, Blockchain, Machine Learning and Artificial intelligent.
Fintech is taking the approach of the complete sector digitalization. A step further by essential replacing (human) financial advisors with robot-advisors that use big data, machine learning and AI to the best investment opportunities for this new generation of investors.
AI allows you to process this information more accurately and quickly. Machine learning can recognize specific patterns and is able to improve with every task it undertakes. As a result, its ability to process information becomes quicker over time.
Blockchain, for example, could transform the supply chains of companies such as Walmart and help banks like JPMorgan save billions in transaction fees every year. Blockchain actually eliminates the need of a central intermediary to do asset transfers. Payment transactions typically go through a central intermediary that uses several steps to authenticate and authorize the person who is allowed to send that value. All settlements can take two or three days. Blockchain compresses the steps into one-step that can be done within a few seconds or minutes. As a result, many financial service industry sectors can drive performance by using this technology to increase transaction speed and transparency.
One more reason to implement AI, ML, and blockchain into the processes is to increase security. While AI is not advanced enough to replace humans altogether, it can validate and double-check information for duplicate expenses, among other common mistakes. AI based tools will help detecting frauds proactively with a very high degree of accuracy.
Top promising FinTech startups in Nordic region.
The Nordic region is the second largest Fintech community in Europe. FinTech is still the biggest single sector in Sweden.
They are finding new ways to offering financial services that revolutionize the way to capture new customers and to communicate with them. The past years have already introduced many new promising startups that are “attacking” financial services.
We all know such great startups as iZettle, Klarna, Auka (mCash), Trustly, Meninga and many others, which are on the way to the top. Who will be the next? Who will replace their names in the nearest future? Below you can find a number of FinTech Startups based in the Nordic region, which might be interesting to follow or even to try them out. Otherwise, would investor fund this great unbelievable sum of money to see their progress?
- Lendify
Based: Stockholm, Sweden
Founded: 2014
Total Funding Amount €42M
Lendify offers the first real marketplace-lending platform in Sweden. The Company operates a marketplace online credit platform that enables people to borrow money and lend money from each other – without the involvement of banks.
- LunarWay
Based: Aarhus, Denmark
Founded: 2015
Total Funding Amount €9M
LunarWay – is a mobile banking app developer that markets to the millennial generation which lets you open a banking account, receive a debit card powered by MasterCard®, get a real-time transaction feed of your spending, view your transactions by shopping category or retailer and more. You also can set saving goals through the app, and pay bills.
- Pleo
Based: Copenhagen, Denmark
Founded: 2015
Total Funding Amount €6.3M
Pleo — a “smart” company card linked to an app. Pleo is a fundamentally new way to manage company expenses. Offering instant and on-demand Prepaid MasterCard® virtual cards for online purchases and plastic cards for in-store purchases, Pleo enables employees to buy the things they need for work, all while keeping the companies in full control of all spending. With the help of breakthrough technology, Pleo reduces the administrative complexity, eliminates expense reports and simplifies bookkeeping.
- Anyfin
Based: Stockholm, Sweden
Founded: 2016
Total Funding Amount €5M
Anyfin – its aim is to build the financial services of tomorrow, putting a stop to shady business practices and capturing generations left cold by traditional banks. It helps borrowers lower their monthly costs, which are often based on high interest rates and hidden fees. We do that with the help of technology, by skipping expensive middlemen and not taking excessive administration fees.
- Capdesk
Based: Copenhagen, Denmark
Founded: 2015
Total Funding Amount €1M
Capdesk – is the world’s first social shareholder management tool. It aims to bring unlisted shares to life by creating a transparent, collaborative, and accessible investment environment. Thereby improving the experience for shareholders in unlisted companies. The platform makes the companies’ shares digital and gathers all the investor relation activities in one place.
- Hiveonline
Based: Copenhagen, Denmark
Founded: 2016
Total Funding Amount €819K
Hiveonline – The financial trust platform for small businesses and sustainable investment products, building trust into financial ecosystems. It has two main lines of business: a service that helps small businesses manage reputation, transactions and agreements, and a line of sustainable investment products that give investors confidence that their money is being spent on the right things, while scoring issuers based on their performance.
- BizBot
Based: Fornebu, Norway
Founded: 2017
Total Funding Amount €213K
Bizbot is a shareholding tool for investors and business owners. By analyzing user data, BizBot automates time-consuming processes so that valuable resources to increase productivity and lessen paperwork.
Who are their users? How do they influence and change the world?
Worldwide trends for simplifying all the financial and banking process through the technologies cover B2B sector, B2C sector, separate clients and customers of different businesses. FinTech innovations change traditional trading, banking, transactions, financial products and services, toward mobile devices or simply move over large, entrenched institutions.
Fintech startups are affecting the financial market in a number of ways: providing much faster loan processing. It is possible to request and be approved for a loan in a matter of hours instead of days or weeks. Moreover, the personalization of insurance through data analysis is provided. Small businesses and other users allow making all payments via apps to save time. 24/7 customer support, allows to offer advice to the clients, while keeping account minimums and fees low. Customers get customized offers and personalized service at a fraction of the former cost.
Nordic FinTech have a unique position for global scaling with outstanding financial technology, excellent payment infrastructure and advanced technological consumers. How far is the rest of the world to become such a digitalize community? Time will tell.
Nevertheless, do you think there are enough qualified developers who can help you to implement these? Are you ready for this kind of implementation in your business? How do you like tendency to simplifying all the life sides? Have you ever used any FinTech apps in your everyday life? Perhaps, one from the list? Which startups seem to be the most successful?
You are welcome to share your thoughts and opinion in comments below.
