Congratulations to all businesses who really made it this year 2016, and for the upcoming and struggling Fintech Companies, I wish 2017 will be your year of breakthrough. The Fintech sector is still massive and full of opportunities. The year 2016 has been an influential year for this sector, as many banks and other financial institutions have changed their business operating model, developing a user-friendly payment environment.
With over $31.6 billion of investment in the United States, over $5.4 billion in the UK and over $49.7 billion invested globally, fintech is among the hottest technology sectors. Both accomplished players like PayPal, Square, or Intuit, and disruptive start-ups like Robinhood or Kabbage are reshaping the financial industry.
If you are thinking of a business to start this coming year, 2017 will be an exciting year to start a fintech business. If you are planning to start a fintech business in 2017, try exploring some of the opportunities in the following most promising areas:
Personal banking and finance
This includes online banking, wealth management, automatic budgeting, financial planning and lots more. It is predicted that in 2019, over 5 billion consumers will be using smartphones to make payments with the growth of mCommerce and eCommerce. Therefore, companies that will facilitate cheaper, convenient and faster money transfer and mobile payments will likely do well in 2017.
Micro loan and P2P lending are highly promising areas and expected to reach more than $1 trillion by 2025.
Robo-advisors
Robo-advisor is any service that uses specialized software to perform what investment advisors and wealth managers normally do. Typically, robo-advisors let the investors answer some questions to determine their appetite for risk.
According to a study by MyPrivateBanking Research, the assets under management of robo-advisers are expected to grow to US$255bn by 2020.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is a way of raising money through the collective effort of family, friends, individual investors and customers. This year, crowdfunding is estimated to have passed $30 billion, up over 150 percent raised globally last year. According to the World Bank, crowdfunding will reach $90 billion by 2020. Therefore, your start-up ideas should find a place in this potentially promising area.
Insurance
InsurTech is a fintech subsector that is growing fast, with the global InsurTech market expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 10% between 2016 and 2020, according to Technavio.
According to the research firm CB Insights, in the first half of 2016, insurance technology start-ups received over $1 billion in funding. Venture capitalists expect this trend to continue. If you are planning to start a business in this field, finding venture capital will not be a big problem.
Blockchain
Next year, Blockchain technology will be used by 15 percent of banks. The technology will become more mature, increasingly solving such as system integration and scalability. While this year has been a year of hit and try, 2017 will see many real world applications using blockchain technology.
A growing number of start-ups will come with new and sophisticated offerings for banks and other financial institutions. It is also expected that smart contracts gradually grow in popularity.
Big Data
Wikibon predicts Big Data market will reach $92.2B by 2026. According to Wikibon’s report, the market for big data software, hardware, and professional services grew to $22.6 billion last year and expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 14.4% to $92.2 billion by 2026. Therefore, his might be a fertile area to invest next year, right?
Your start-up ideas should solve a consumer or business problem. For instance, people do not want to visit banks anymore, instead, they wish all banking services come to them. There are a lot of problems on which you should base your start-up ideas. Basically, individuals’ innovation should solve a problem of either businesses or consumers. If your business will make transactions, lending, wealth management easy and cheaper for all, 2017 will be your year of success.
My advice, you need to also stay connected and informed with the latest industry updates and innovations to help you with some important business decisions, so subscribe to our daily updates, join our Facebook and Twitter Communities. Checkout some of the Fintech Events around you and See some other popular Fintech Blogs Online.
You also need to keep us and your potential customers updated with what is happening in your business, may be through newsletter emails, press release or through blogging. The Techbullion Team is always available to share any news from Fintech Companies with our community, email editor@techbullion.com if you have any news for us. If you want to start a blog for your fintech business, read this article on why you need a blog and how to run a successful blog. All the best.
