The term 'fintech' has become generalized and is increasingly heard, not only within the entrepreneurial ecosystem, but also outside it. Pero What exactly is a fintech startup?
The word is a hybrid between 'finance' and 'technology' in English and encompasses all those emerging companies that are dedicated to financial technologies.It's a fairly broad concept, since not only classic banking and neobank apps are included, but also many other things, such as tools for saving or consuming responsibly, those focused on investment, comparators of banking products such as loans or mortgages, cryptocurrency and blockchain apps, mobile payments, crowdfunding, crowdlending, etc.
Madrid, fintech capital
The 2020 report prepared by South Summit suggests that fintech would be the industry with the largest projects submitted to the event. Undoubtedly, it is a growing market in which there are constantly purchases and acquisitions, mergers and all kinds of transactions. The newspaper El Referente, a media specialized in startups, published a study on the fintech sector a couple of weeks ago in collaboration with ABANCA Innova. As can be seen from it, In our country there are more than 400 financial technology startups operating, of which 347 would be Spanish, 51 foreign and 5 do not have a specific location. The Community of Madrid would concentrate most of these companies, with 164 of the total. Somewhat behind is Catalonia, like 107 companies in the sector. It makes sense that this is the case, since Madrid is the financial capital of Spain and Barcelona is a gateway to projects in other European countries. In addition, faced with the threat of Brexit, many business startups based in the City of London have set their sights on both cities. To go to the third autonomous community with the most fintech startups, you have to go down a lot: the Valencian Community is in third place with 24 companies in the sector. Behind are Andalusia (17), Galicia (11) and Aragón, Castilla León and the Basque Country (both with 4). There are also some in the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands and Castilla La Mancha (3), Asturias (2) and La Rioja (1).
Banks and fintech, formerly enemies and now allies
A few years ago, fintechs were seen as enemies by classic banks, however, this has changed and right now 75% of the companies dedicated to this sector in Spain actively collaborate with companies in the traditional financial and banking sector.Considering that banks are big giants that cannot always keep up with innovation, it is logical that they are open to these partnerships and even take ownership of these emerging companies. Another formula is vertical accelerators and corporate acceleration programs, such as Bankia Fintech, BBVA Open Space, Caixa Dayone or Innsomnia Fintech. In some ways, these entities host innovative projects for which they end up owning a percentage of equity.
