A survey conducted with the global fintech community by Startupbootcamp FinTech, an accelerator focused on financial innovation and part of the global Startupbootcamp network, finds that London has further increased its position as the world’s leading city in fintech. 63% of respondents selected London compared to 51% that chose the city in 2014.
The results also show that 68% of the 200 respondents from a global community of finch and startup professionals, don’t believe that finch industry is facing a valuation bubble similar to the dot.com bubble of the late 1990s.
Nektarios Liolios, co-founder of Startupbootcamp FinTech stated:
“The survey reaffirms the dominance of London in FinTech. This is reflected by the threefold increase in FinTech investment in the last year. London continues to combine the perfect conditions for FinTech startups to thrive: early-stage investors, ‘understanding’ regulator and supportive government.”
Respondents were also asked which company will be a financial services provider in the next five years:
- A large proportion of 2015 respondents answered Alibaba at 34% (a new option in the 2015 poll).
- However, Amazon was down 32% to just 10% in 2015; and Google was also down to 15% from 2014.
- There was a 5% increase in the number of respondents selecting Apple, growing from 13% to 18%.
- Facebook remained similar at 13% in 2015, down from 15% in 2014.
As well as looking at the leading fintech cities, the results also highlight that the industry is not agreed on where the next wave of fintech startups are coming from:
- 20% of respondents consider “Financial Inclusion” to be the next area of fintech innovation, however the confidence in this area is less intense than in 2014 (30% of respondents agreed).
- The remaining respondents were split between sectors including: Wealth Management, Back Office Improvements, Payments, Blockchain and Insurance.
Over the last year, financial institutions have continued to struggle to innovate. The survey asked why that is:
The most popular response remained Inertia, as in 2014, however with less strength (24% vs. 37% in 2014). Despite Inertia being the majority response, the significant percentage drop shows that it is becoming less of an issue.- Next most popular response was Maintaining Legacy Systems at 21%; Regulation remained stable at 17%; and “Not knowing how to do it” dropped from 21% in 2014 to 14% in 2015.
