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03 FOREWORD

05 BRAZILLIAN FINTECHS

09 LIST OF 20 HOTTEST FINTECHS

13 INTERNATIONAL FINTECHS

15 ONLINE OAYMENTS ECOSYSTEM

17 CONSIDERATIONS WHEN ESTABLISHING

19 TRACTION

20 ESTABLISH AN ENTITY OR FIND A REP PARTNER

21 TOP TIER PLAYERS THINKING

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THE FINANCIAL WORLD ISCHANGING

RAPIDLY

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As Forbes mentioned in a recent article, the digital influence is changing all aspects of how people and businesses deal with money. Start-ups offering tech-enabled payments, currency exchange, crowd funding, online lending and wealth management services are sprouting all over the globe, posing a fierce competition to traditional retail banking and financial services firms.

“The financial crisis meant that a few financial services giants stopped investing in R&D. This, coupled with new regulatory requirements imposed on the banks and the need to drive costs out of financial services, meant that opportunity was ripe ...”

Explains Eric Van der Kleij, British entrepreneur ahead of Level39, in an interview with Fortune.

The drive of these young companies is to innovate and, therefore, represent a break with traditional financial institutions, known for their outdated technology made for an era that has passed. FinTechs disseminate a range of financial services that, until recently, was exclusive to banks, with one crucial difference: companies can now see and measure the service they are hiring. Scanning has brought more transparency to the sector, as well as new and reliable metrics to measure performance and assist the making of strategic business decisions. It’s technology in favour of financial results. This applies in particular to countries under development, where banking and financial systems are heavily bureaucratic.

Brazil, for example, has only a fraction of the thousands of FinTechs existing in the USA. Nevertheless, FinTechs are finding fertile ground to grow and Brazilian banks have shown concern about the phenomenon.Itaú, the largest and most profitable bank in the country, bought an e-commerce gateway in 2014, MaxiPago, for an undisclosed amount. They have also partnered up with other investors and business accelerators to bring under their wings a co-working space, home for 42 start-ups, of which, 6 are FinTechs.

Bradesco has been sending staff to New York, Silicon Valley and London for the past three years with the single purpose to research digital news. They are also hosts of a business incubator program called InovaBRA, created with the mission to accelerate start-ups whose business has an affinity with the bank.

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The underlying reason for all this rush of banks is the recognition that large institutions are often unable to innovate at the speed required. While banks struggle to think of new ways to relate to their digital audience, start-ups are born with a product tailored to the user. The consensus among financial institutions is that the partnership, in the end, may be the best way.

Brazilian FintechsBrazil has a lively ecosystem for Fintech startups. The one everyone is setting their eyes on is Nubank. The company issues credit cards free of annuity in contraposition to regular banks, whose annuities are fiercely criticised and often considered abusive. Nubank is backed by the giant Sequoia Capital and have already 300,000 people lining up to receive their cards despite never spending a single penny on advertisement. Another significant difference of the company with traditional card issuers is the fact that contact with the company is done almost entirely through digital format, with 65% of customers using their built-in chat application, and to minor degree, through social medias and email.

Another equally rising star is Magnetis, an intelligent platform that helps people design a tailored investment plan for themselves.

The platform is free of charge (until you decide to invest and the company takes a modest 0.4% of the total invested per year) and accessible to all people, regardless of the size of their assets. They were pioneers of this technology in Brazil, starting in 2010 and now managing accounts of over 115 000 customers, worth a total of 2,8 billion dollars.

In the same segment, there is GuiaBolso (literally translated ‘Pocket Guide’), a Personal Financial Management platform that automates budgeting and guides financial decision-making. They are the most downloaded app in Apple Store Brazil with 1,6 million active users registered.

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