Last year, I took issue with the general idea that there is a lack of innovation in finance.
This is not merely me hypothesizing about technology — RWM manages about ~$2.8B in assets, serving over 1600 families. We could not do all we do — asset management, financial planning, tax & estate plans, 401ks, and tax-qualified accounts, plus all of the research, writing, and publishing we do unless we had a robust, cutting edge tech stack.
We live it every day.
We are intimately familiar with this space, and my firsthand experience has been that financial technology (aka FinTech) makes us that much more efficient, productive, and competent, even as FinTech keeps driving costs lower and making investment/finance less expensive.
The graphic I showed last time suggested there was a lot of venture interest in this space, but you may not have imagined just how large this sector is relative to the rest of venture capital: Fintech accounted for $1 in every $5 of global venture funding. Fintech funding more than doubled in 2021 to $132 billion, accounting for 21% of all venture dollars invested worldwide. (See charts after the jump)
I don’t really care about the global mega-rounds or the number of unicorns or the M&A deals in the space; that’s for the bankers to worry about. What intrigues me is the direction and magnitude of the overall trend. This space is rapidly growing, filled with entrepreneurs, both technologists and investors that either work in (or adjacent to) finance. That bodes well for more innovations coming my way, as well as our ability to keep evolving how and what we do for clients. Anytime we have an opportunity for faster-better-cheaper, we are all in.
The pace of innovation is accelerating, only limited by how quickly we can adopt the best technologies for doing our jobs.
Perhaps it was true a few decades ago that the only innovations in finance were the ETF and the ATM — but if you believe that is still the case today, prepare yourself to get left behind . . .
Source:
State Of Fintech 2021 Report
Anisha Kothapa
CB Insights January 25, 2022
https://bit.ly/3r8gni0
Previously:
Faster / Better / Cheaper (November 11, 2021)
2021 State of Venture Capital (January 13, 2022)
Venture Capital Money Everywhere (September 15, 2021)
