What’s NOT hot in Fintech?

In discussion with other investors, we were talking about what’s hot and what’s not in fintech. What’s hot I discussed the other day. What’s not is today’s discussion. Our conclusion was that digital banking, neobanks and challengers, BaaS, payments, lending and other well trodden fintech fields are no longer hot. Been there, done that. These are the areas where investors are fed up, as they’ve had pitches from these areas for years and yes, they feel they’ve been there and done that.

Hmmmmm.

I was not happy with that view.

When we say that AI and crypto are hot and payments and lending are not, there’s an issue. What if we integrated crypto and payments and AI and lending? Couldn’t that make it hot? This is where I come from: everything is change and everything is progress. Therefore, nothing is not hot, as everything is changing every day. Does this mean there could be another new NuBank or Stripe? Ummm … probably not. But there may be new partners with a NuBank or Stripe who bring AI and crypto to the party.

This is why banks and new banks are always looking at innovative start-ups and trying to work out if they can worth with them, partner with then, acquire them or ignore them. Either way, there’s always something new developing and happening.

Interestingly, the debate I’ve had a few times now is whether some of these developments will destroy what went before. The latest one is whether quantum will destroy blockchain.

It is possible that there will come a time, well into the future, when quantum computers could break the SHA-256 hashing algorithm that Bitcoin uses. However, if there were quantum computers that powerful, they could break virtually any existing encryption software.

Source: Quora

What this says is that there is no status quo. There is no stability. There is only change and the ones that survive are the ones that are the most adaptable to change. This applies to everyone. Neobanks, challenger banks, traditional banks, payments providers, trusted third parties, you name it. They all have the same issue: change is the only constant.

So, when we say what’s hot and what’s not, I’m never happy talking about what’s not as digital banking, digital finance and the digital revolution is never over. It’s an ongoing challenge of keeping up with change.

In the near future, we have 6G, the metaverse, Web3, quantum computing and more. These are all opportunities for change in finance that could destroy everything we have today and replace it with something else. Change is the only constant (Ed: did I say that already?).

So what’s the takeaway? What to do about it?

Well the key is to always be one step ahead. As we see these changes coming, experiment with them, internalise them and consider what it might mean for the business today and tomorrow. How will all of these future trends and technologies change today’s business, and what will you have to change in the business to embrace these future trends and technologies? There is nothing that’s not hot. Just yesterday’s business and yesterday’s technologies.