What is FinTech? Financial Technology Becomes Even Broader

Author: Rosalia Mazza

Also this week FinTech Weekly collected for you the best FinTech news. Stay tuned to discover the most important fintech conferences and to know more about financial technology – an ever-evolving industry.?

What people are discovering about Ukraine

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine turned on the spotlight on Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy: before the invasion, his intention was to show how Ukraine was developing its start-ups.?

Since Ukrainian entrepreneurs often incorporate their companies in other European countries, it’s not easy to assess how robust the Ukrainian market is: actually, popular companies like Grammarly and GitHub are Ukrainian.?

But the conflict is affecting this market, as well as the entire fintech industry.?

Even if fintech like Zeta managed to obtain funds for millions of dollars and partnerships with companies like Mastercard, and even if climate fintech are rising both in the U.S. and Europe, Crunchbase just shared some important data: after comparing the last funding rounds to the ones that preceded the conflict, the company found that fintech suffered a decrease in investments for over 60%.?

In the meanwhile, cryptos make headlines

As FinTech Weekly reported last week, Ukraine received millions in crypto donations: cryptos can’t be controlled by governments, so they are the safest financial means right now.?

Military suppliers know that: those donations were not used only for food and fuel, but also to buy military supplies for Ukrainian soldiers.?

Suppliers soon activated crypto accounts, and all the operations were facilitated by the Ukrainian crypto exchange Kuna.?

The current popularity of cryptocurrencies is not only related to the conflict: after Texas, also Virginia becomes a crypto-friendly US state, and banks are working to offer users crypto custodial services.?

Final thoughts: Why FinTech becomes broader

FinTech stands for financial technology, but it’s always harder to limit its sphere of action to finance and technology.?

The conflict is showing how fintech is becoming more and more important for people and whole countries when an alternative, stronger control over unpredicted events is needed.?