Oops we did it again.

Oops, you did it again, yes that is correct FinTech is the leading sector for growth across the New Zealand Tech Sector, not a surprise.

As we continue to see more collaboration between incumbents and FinTech’s like Westpac and CoGo, ANZ and AIDER, BNZ and Alpha FinTech, ASB and Trade Window we are also seeing great examples in the Insurance space. It is great to see NZ is playing a part in collaborating or co-designing new products and solutions to drive a better customer outcome.

Despite our new friend who keeps hanging around, even although we wish they would leave, COVID of course there was $2.4bn of Capital Investment in New Zealand in 2020 according to the TIN100 Investor Guide.

The Technology sector is going gangbusters with the size of the sector just under $13bn at $12.7bn and the biggest contributor to that by far is FinTech at 22.1% (Awesome work everyone)

Over the years there has been much conversation about the challenges of raising capital in New Zealand, however, at our FinTech Hui we heard from VC’s who said New Zealand is a destination of choice for investment and you can see in the report that vc funding is very healthy and early-stage investment is up by 48% during the last 12 months.

To put some of this in perspective lets look at some numbers:

                                        5 Year Growth                             5 Year CAGR

FinTech                           $1.04Bn                                       31.4%

Software                         $387m                                         16.4%

Healthcare                      $777m                                         9.7%

AgriTech                         $422m                                         7.9%

The clear message here is we need to be focusing a lot more attention on the FinTech opportunities for both local and companies looking to export, which is why we are supporting the discussions between the UK and New Zealand Government’s on the Free Trade Agreement so that we include opportunities for FinTech companies to access which one of the biggest FinTech hubs in the world.

With returning Kiwi’s bringing back their intellectual property and experience in other markets our talent challenge is improving but we still have some work to do currently we have just under 115,000 people employed in the Technology sector. We need to look at ways of helping people move into the tech sector, clear pathways must be established, training to pivot those who want to move into the sector and free training for those that have lost their role.

Our economy has generally been underpinned by sectors which we now see being massively disrupted however COVID has been a catalyst for the FinTech sector and now is the time to be very clear on our national strategy. We can learn from the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong countries with which we have great relationships to help us be part of this global movement rather than being left behind.

I believe we need closer alignment across FinTech with those countries who have shown it is not just a “new buzz” but a sector that delivers economic growth, creates jobs, increases exports, drives more competition, provides more transparency, aligns products and solutions for one’s lifecycle and tackles climate change, PHEW it does all that, it can IF we embrace it.

As we fumble to dispatch the vaccine let us not make the same mistake with a sector that was worth USD 5,504.13bN in 2019 with an expected growth of CAGR 23.58% (as indicated by Research & Markets.com) Government, Industry and our Regulators must set aside time to align their thinking to help support the fastest growing sector in New Zealand the FinTech sector.