In 2019, Spain was ranked as the fifth country in fintech investment with a budget of 245 million euros, 3% of the total. The United Kingdom, leader in the ranking, has financed companies in this sector with 3,492 million euros. It is closely followed by Germany, with 2,322 million, Sweden with 583.7 million and France with 502.9 million. Investment in Europe 2019 of the open innovation platform, Finnovating, highlights that:
Over the past year, total fintech investments raised 8,291 million in 481 rounds.April, May and June were the most active months in terms of funding rounds, in total 138 rounds that totaled 3.05 billion.October, November and December rose 100 rounds, for a total of 1,096 million.
“Spain is a country with a large number of fintechs, the highest in Europe, yet it represents only 3% of the total investments made in this sector in Europe,” says the head of innovation at Finnovating, Jaime Fernández.
The main European institutional investors that have started to invest actively are Santander, Allianz and Bpifrance. On the other hand, the most active venture capitals have been Anthemis, Seedinvest, Global Founders Capital, among others.
Rodrigo García de la Cruz, CEO of Finnovating, explains “the potential of the market Fintech Spanish is enormous: we are the eurozone country with the most startups in this ecosystem, but we are still a long way off in investment. In addition, we need to support them both economically and regulatory because of the great impact they have on meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals in the 2030 Agenda, since their business models, products and services have a very high social component, essential for the future.”
What is considered a fintech startup?Dynamic and flexible companies that use advanced technology applied to the financial sector. Some examples of what these companies allow to do are: mobile payment, personal finance management, business crowdfunding, money transfers between users, among others. Fintech is a word that combines two terms in English: Finance and Technology, which if we translate it into Spanish means financial technology. Applied to the world of startups, it's about companies that offer their customers highly innovative financial products and services, through the use of ICTs.Technology makes it possible to lower costs and simplify processes, resulting in a more efficient and cheaper service compared to traditional financial systems. This is why banks are increasingly entering this sector, whether for internal applications, investments or company purchases.
