Blog

Welke zaken zijn goede indicatoren van groei van een bedrijf? Tot nu toe bestaan hier alleen maar aannames over, maar een echte blauwdruk voor groei ontbreekt. Voor het eerst worden met behulp van data science deze groeifactoren op een wetenschappelijke manier in kaart gebracht. De Nederlandse universiteit voor data science JADS (Jheronimus Academy of Data Science) en bedrijfsinformatiespecialist Graydon gaan hieraan samenwerken. “Tijdens hun levenscyclus ondergaan sommige bedrijven een enorme groei. Maar er zijn ook bedrijven die door de jaren heen min of meer dezelfde omvang houden”, zegt Arjan van den Born van JADS. “Er lijkt geen blauwdruk voor succes of groei te zijn. Zelfs nu - na meer dan een eeuw waarin de wetenschap zich volop heeft gebogen over wat de succesfactoren van ondernemerschap zijn - is er nog steeds geen eenduidig, waterdicht groeimodel.” Slimme inzet van Big Data “Wij zijn een samenwerking aangegaan met JADS omdat we willen onderzoeken wat de bepalende elementen zijn van succesvolle organisaties”, legt Rob Veneboer, COO van Graydon uit. “Waarom groeien zij? Wat doen de bedrijven anders? Welke overeenkomsten tonen ze? Investeren ze veel? Kennen ze de klantvraag of de potentie in de markt beter dankzij inzet van slimme data?” Nieuwe data science technieken voor sterkere voorspellingen Om op deze vragen een antwoord te kunnen bieden ontwikkelen data scientists van Graydon en JADS aan de hand van big data analyses nieuwe modellen die groei van bedrijven kan verklaren en zelfs voorspellen. Daarnaast wordt, met behulp van de allernieuwste data science inzichten en –toepassingen, de voorspellende kracht van beschikbare bedrijfsmodellen verbeterd. Waar tot nu toe bedrijfsgroei de belangrijkste factor voor succes was, zal er nu gekeken worden naar voorheen ontoegankelijke data - zoals ongestructureerde data van websites - om nieuwe variabelen en inzichten te verkrijgen. Dit gebeurt met gebruik van state-of-the-art technieken zoals scraping , natural language processing en machine learning . Daarnaast ambieert de samenwerking tussen Graydon en JADS ook het identificeren van volstrekt nieuwe, potentieel waardevolle gebieden voor datacollectie.  ‘Informatiestroom van groot belang bij uitvoerende taak van bedrijf’ “Wij geloven dat de manier waarop je omgaat met informatiestromen van groot belang is bij de uitvoering van je organisatie,” zegt Veneboer, “dat is ook de reden waarom we zowel middelen als kennis beschikbaar stellen voor wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Graydon is altijd op zoek naar partnerships om samen te werken aan oplossingen en informatie die het bedrijfsleven sterker maken.”  De samenwerking tussen Graydon en JADS zal stapsgewijs intensiveren. Elke vervolgstap wordt op basis van de behaalde resultaten genomen. Arjan van den Born van JADS: “Graydon is een toonaangevende aanbieder van bedrijfsinformatie. Bovendien delen we dezelfde ambitie, om bedrijven en de economie met behulp van data en inzichten te laten groeien.”

  German FinTech Cringle , the developer of mobile P2P-payment solutions, has returned to Companisto and has released its second equity crowdfunding round, following their first successful equity funding back in 2016. With this Series B crowdfunding campaign, Cringle aims to raise at least €600,000 for 9.09% equity offered. Since launching the second equity crowdfunding campaign, Cringle, which is currently valued at 6 million euros, has already raised €175.500 from 288 investors, called Companists . Their largest investment to date is €10,000. Still, with only 37 days left to invest, there is certainly a huge gap to be closed before reaching their goal. On the other hand, Cringle may rely on the mantra ‘it ain’t over ‘till the deadline has passed’. Earlier investments in FinTech has already proven that.   First crowdfunding campaign exceeded expectations Cringle confirmed to have positive experiences with Companisto, as being the first FinTech-company to carry out an equity-based crowdfunding campaign on their platform. This successful equity crowdfunding campaign, back in 2016, completed Cringle’s financial goal 200% ahead of their target, thanks to more than 1400 Companists .   P2P-payments to any cellphone, without using IBAN Cringle, a German FinTech start-up founded in 2014, used the investment to further develop their mobile payment solutions and is currently a reliable partner for many banks and app providers in Europe. With the Cringle technology, users are able to immediately send money securely and reliably to friends across Europe, just as simple as sending a text message, without using an IBAN. Leading online banks, such as DKB and Consorsbank, as well as personal financial advisors, such as Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG), already rely on Cringle and actively offer more than 10 million of their customers to use Cringle as a payment solution. Well-known investors, Axel Springer, Yabeo Capital and Michael Brem are among Cringle’s strategic funders.   Established as Europe’s leading P2P-provider Since launching over 3.5 million euros have been sent via Cringle, with a monthly growth of more than 10%, the FinTech-platform seeks to establish itself as Europe’s leading provider of mobile payments between private individuals. Funding from this campaign will be used to implement pending partnerships, create new international partnerships and implement planned, innovative payment solutions with current partners. Cringle’s Companisto campaign has an option to extend until 22 December 2017.

Voor een maximaal rendement en een optimale efficiëntie voeren steeds meer bedrijven technologische innovaties  door. Omdat deze ontwikkelingen de bestaande businessmodellen verstoren, vergt het aanpassing van organisatie én personeel. Het digitaliseren van een onderneming gaat met vallen en opstaan. Hoe meer technologie de dagelijkse routine overneemt en gecompliceerde bedrijfsprocessen versimpelt, hoe groter het belang van betrokkenheid van medewerkers maar ook het behoud van continue focus op de klantbeleving. Balans tussen procesoptimalisatie en menselijke interactie En juist op dat laatste punt gaat het vaak mis, zo stelt Tobias Walraven. De CEO van RIFF, een bedrijf dat ondernemingen helpt bij de goede implementatie van digitale verandering, ziet met grote regelmaat organisaties waar digitalisering is doorgeslagen  en klanten het bedrijf niet meer herkennen.  “Het is ongelooflijk belangrijk om een goede balans te bewaken; aan de ene kant de noodzakelijke procesoptimalisatie en aan de andere kant waardevolle, menselijke interactie met je klanten.” Met de introductie van RIFF, de nieuwe merknaam van de fusie tussen Tribal, Jaagers en The Webcare company eerder dit jaar,  wil Walraven inspelen op het behoud van balans bij het digitaal transformeren van organisaties. “Wij waken ervoor dat digitaliseringsprocessen en menselijke interactie niet uit balans raken. Dat gaat immers ten koste van de klantwaardering en uiteindelijk omzet.” Betrokkenheid van medewerker Technologies innovaties volgen elkaar steeds sneller op en verstoren daarbij bestaande businessmodellen. Of het nu gaat om het automatiseren van contact met klanten of het optimaliseren en reorganiseren van interne processen, om digitale transformaties versneld en goed te implementeren is betrokkenheid van medewerkers óók cruciaal. Maar hoe kun je daar als organisatie goed op inspelen zonder de bedrijfscultuur te verkwanselen? Enkele ontwikkelingen waar je niet omheen kunt de disruptive era .  Tips die overigens geschikt zijn voor zowel HR-afdelingen als werkzoekenden in de digitale (FinTech) sector. Flexibel Flexibiliteit is tegenwoordig key. Werken waar je wilt is de nieuwe norm. WiFi is alomtegenwoordig en de databundels zijn eindeloos. Hierdoor is elke dag werken op hetzelfde kantoor niet meer nodig. Flexibiliteit vanuit de werkgever om met regelmaat uit te kunnen wijken naar een nieuwe werkplek, waar en wanneer dan ook, is gewenst  Carrière in continue ontwikkeling Jarenlang werken voor een en dezelfde organisatie is niet meer van deze tijd. Voor goed geschoold talent is continue ontwikkeling van groot belang. Zij zoeken uitdaging, willen nieuwe ervaringen opdoen en hun ‘skill set’ uitbreiden. Dit vinden zij door een wisselende omgeving en het oplossen van nieuwe, innovatieve vraagstukken. Elkaar in rap tempo opvolgend. Stilstaan voelt voor deze groep als achteruitgang. Een organisatie die hierop inhaakt blijft de concurrentie een stap voor. Kennis delen Was het vroeger vooral ‘kennis is macht’, tegenwoordig verschuift dat steeds opzichtiger naar ‘sharing is caring’; volledige transparantie ten aanzien van beschikbare kennis en informatie helpt een organisatie vooruit. Dit wordt mede gestimuleerd door de mate en snelheid waarmee organisaties hun kennis delen, zowel intern als extern. Het uitdragen van expertise door organisatie en medewerkers draagt bij de autoriteit, thought leadership en de reputatie van een bedrijf. Leercurve Het maken van fouten wordt steeds meer gezien als een stap in de ontwikkeling naar succes. Daarbij wordt een voorbeeld genomen aan succesvolle ondernemers en hun doorzettingsvermogen; eerdere faillissementen leiden niet zelden tot successen in de latere carrière. Een leercurve bestaat uit vallen en opstaan. Teamwork De nieuwe generatie medewerkers, zeker in de FinTech met haar agile teams, legt de focus minder op individuele prestaties en meer op de impact van teamwerk. Genoegdoening wordt behaald uit de trots op de rol die hij of zij daarin heeft mogen spelen en de uiteindelijke prestaties van een team. Ervaring en ontwikkeling DE huidige medewerker is steeds meer op zoek naar intrinsieke motivatie in plaats van excentrieke motivatie. Met andere woorden; de financiele beloning blijft van belang, maar schuift steeds verder naar de achtergrond. Het gaat tegenwoordig steeds meer om ervaring en ontwikkelingen. Social media hebben ertoe bijgedragen dat ervaringen, zowel op professioneel als persoonlijk vlak, een grotere verrijking zijn dan materie. Sociale verantwoordelijkheid en een goede work-life balance zijn de drijvende factoren voor medewerkers aan het worden.

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have become a popular way for IT startups to raise funding for their projects. Yet, many experts are warning the public about the risks associated with ICOs, reminding investors to be careful as the practice is still unregulated.  ICOs , also known as token sales, are a good way for startups to raise money from interested parties, similar to crowdfunding, by allowing them to buy a stake. In return, investors receive a token or cryptocurrency . The tokens are not equivalent to shares in the company. This, of course, depends entirely on how the ICO and emission models are set up - if they do not provide dividends, voting rights on company policy or buy back initiatives, then they are not equal to securities or shares.  ICOs are very popular among cryptocurrency and blockchain startups, and many were launched in the past few months. After the so-called cryptocurrency bubble (when prices of all major coins went up a couple of thousands percent), many investors turned to ICOs in search for the prospective investment opportunities, so that could be the reason for the huge success of ICOs. In 2017, there have been over 100 ICOs so far, which collectively raised US$1.25 billion. Many startups have raised a large amount of money, for example - Tezos , a company that has created a new blockchain, raised over US$230 million in a few days.  Below is a list of things to consider when investing in ICOs , which can come handy for all those interested in backing new tech projects.   The Novelty Factor When it comes to investing in an ICO, it is important to identify the key features of a project that make it different from the endless sea of coins with the same or similar properties.  For example, when the cryptocurrency world was young, there were many forks of the original Bitcoin blockchain with just minor differences, such as an increased supply, or quicker transactions. The majority of these coins have since been abandoned. The only people that made any money were the creators of these fake coins. A good example of innovative cryptocurrencies are MaidSafe, Storj, and Sia. They are different from Bitcoin as their primary focus is on decentralizing data storage, and not on being a sole cryptocurrency . Another great project is Ethereum. It made possible to create more interesting applications with the blockchain on top of just transferring funds (like Bitcoin does). It’s no surprise that the project was able to amass one of the largest ICOs to date.  Investing in an ICO which is too similar to an established project is usually a bad idea, because they often prove unprofitable. These types of ICOs often look to use the hype of other successful projects in order to earn some quick cash. Case in point, after the Ethereum success there were a great many ICOs that promised more of ‘smart contracts.' None delivered.   Early Investment Bonuses Another thing to pay attention to when evaluating an ICO is whether or not the developers are offering a bonus incentive for early investors. The bonus can vary widely from project to project, of course. For example, an ICO could offer a 10 percent bonus distribution for the users who invest before a 100BTC milestone is reached. This means that, if 1 BTC got the investor 1000 coins, with the bonus they would receive 1100 coins instead. Of course, if one is investing towards the end of an ICO in which a bonus was offered, the investor must be aware that those who invested early will theoretically have more control of the total coin supply.   Escrow and Refunds One of the good ways to learn more about the ICO before the investment is by identifying who is handling escrow services for the crowdfunding. Reputable development teams will enlist individuals with a strong reputation within the cryptocurrency community to act as trustworthy holders of raised funds. As they put their reputation on the line, these individuals are less likely to scam the investors or try to run with the raised funds. Additionally, well-organized developers will have set in place a condition where, if a certain amount of funds is not gathered, the individuals who contributed BTC will be refunded. This acts as a fail safe protection in the event that a project ends up under-funded.   Developer Credibility – Public vs. Anonymous  Regarding the credibility of developers, there is a lot to be said about public team vs. anonymous. When the development team is public, they are faces o the company and individuals that could theoretically be held accountable if they squander raised funds, or run off with the money. Of course, there are also ICOs that are held by anonymous developers, some of which have a credible background, and some of which are new to the cryptocurrency world. ICOs held by the anonymous developers who do not have a long-standing presence in the community could be somewhat risky. The problem with this situation is that there is no accountability if the developer cuts and runs, and, with no former projects to look upon, it's hard to tell if they’re capable of finishing the product.   Three Types of ICOs The amount of money raised by an ICO doesn't guarantee the corresponding quality of the product. Good marketing, clever branding, SEO wizards - all of these things attract attention, and the more people talk about the product - the more investment it gets. Keeping this in mind, we've sorted three types of ICOs :   High risk No product. These projects lack anything that can be touched or tested by investors. The team presents only the project pitch and a promise. The majority of these projects have GitHub accounts with some code, but it would take a few full-time analysts to examine it just on surface-level.   Medium risk This is company's second/third product. If the company has great and well-accepted products that have been around for some time, that gives them some sort of credibility. The existence and usefulness of the previously created product is certainly a good starting point for investors to consider putting their money into the ICO.   Low risk The company offers the functioning product. Projects rarely fall into this category by offering a usable version of their product during the ICO. Ethereum was one of the rare projects that fit into this category.   Conclusion   ICOs will become more and more popular as a method for raising funds. There will be plenty of projects to choose from, hence it will become even harder to assess these projects. It is vital to investigate and read as much information as possible and write down all the important aspects, positive and negative, before making an investment decision. Investing into innovative, credible, public ICOs can bring great returns, but when investing make sure you've done your homework in order to avoid losing your investment.   Having questions about ICOs? Feel free to post them in the comments, we're here for you. 

Waar de traditionele banken beducht zijn voor de concurrentie van FinTech-startups , waarschuwt het World Economic Forum voor zware competitie vanuit een volledig andere hoek. “Tech-giganten als Amazon, Facebook en Google vormen een veel groter gevaar voor de banken dan de startende bedrijven in de financiele technologie (FinTech).”   Dat concludeert het World Economic Forum (WEF) in haar meest recente rapport “The Future of Financial Services”, waarin het de ontwikkeling in de bancaire industrie in kaart brengt. FinTech-startups vs. Banken De FinTech-sector, in de UK gewaardeerd op een forse 7 miljard dollar, vormt al geruime tijd een belangrijk focuspunt voor CEO’s en beleidsbepalers in de financiële dienstverlening. Volledig ingegeven door de angst dat traditionele banken klanten (kunnen) verliezen aan goedkopere en toegankelijke nieuwe spelers. ‘Facebook en Amazon vormen concurrentie voor banken’ Hoewel deze innovatieve FinTech-startups wel degelijk als disruptors in een vrij traditionele markt kunnen worden gezien, suggereert het World Economic Forum dat de banksector haar bezorgdheid elders op moet richten. Uit het rapport: “Startups in FinTech hebben niet zoveel marktaandeel behaald als verwacht, terwijl de bestaande tech-reuzen flink hebben geïnvesteerd aan de uitbreiding van hun bestaande infrastructuur.” Daarbij kan worden gedacht aan Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data Customer Analyse en Cloud Computing. Blinde vlek Voor de bancaire sector lijkt het speelveld van de tech-giganten echter een blinde vlek. Sterker nog, steeds meer grote bedrijven zoeken aansluiting met deze Tech-partijen. Zo maken grote bedrijven als Aon en Carlyl inmiddels gebruik van Amazon’s Cloud Computing Platform , en is Amazon spraak-systeem Alexa inmiddels geïntegreerd bij Capital One en Liberty Mutual. Andere integreren liever met de Facebook-app om klanten aan te trekken, met het Braziliaanse Banco Bradesco als meest recente voorbeeld . De bank laat klanten hun dagelijkse bankzaken regelen via het sociale netwerk. Wederzijds profijt Vooralsnog verlopen deze partnerschappen op basis van wederzijds profijt; gemak voor de consument en een sloot aan relevante data voor de tech-bedrijven. Maar daar schuilt nu precies het gevaar. “The partnership between banks and large tech companies risks not staying a reciprocal one,” stelt Jesse McWaters, hoofdauteur van WEF-studie, in het rapport. “Financial institutions increasingly rely on technology firms for their most strategically sensitive capabilities, but can so far only offer their ongoing business in return.” In tegenstelling tot FinTech-startups, die hun product van scratch af opbouwen, hebben partijen als Amazon en Facebook door de bestaande integraties zicht op de data-stroom. “Dat geeft deze partijen de mogelijkheid tot ‘pick and choose’”, zo stelt McWaters. Met andere woorden; waardevolle data benutten en waar mogelijk een innovatief alternatief bieden. PSD2 dwingt tot keuze Zeker met de komende invoering van PSD2 is dit een reële mogelijkheid. Dat noopt de banken tot een keuze, aldus McWaters. "Financial institutions will likely need to walk a challenging line between capitalising on the services of large technology players and becoming dependent on them,."  

According to the recent reports published by a well-known consultation firm known as the Accenture, the investments in the domain of Financial Technology has risen up to 10 percent and has reached a staggering $22.6 billion in the year 2016. The epic rise in Fintech industry is attributed to the rise of industry in China which contributed a lot in bringing this boom. Many would wonder as what brought this excessive boom? The answer is, cutting edge technology which brought together the finance and technology together, along with a little addition of artificially intelligent machine learning algorithms which made the recommender systems more effective and efficient. This merger of finance and AI came proved to be the best for several startups and now that the market has seen the spark in this merger, every second start-up is working on bringing about innovations in lesser possible time. The traditional banking artificial intelligence was working closely before as well but the main focus was only to serve the big organization which are handling millions of transactions per day. The Fintech, on the other hand, promises to empower the smaller organizations having consumers who need to be tended gently. The only way Fintech can achieve the goal of happy and satisfied customers is by reaching out to them at the moment of need and attending to their issues by resolving them as soon as possible. The resolution should be in a manner which is in favor of the customer on a large scale. Considering AI has several consumer-level applications developed specifically to answer the needs of the clingy customers, but these are available in fragments and are mostly generic. The Fintech has offered a more viable and integrated solution to the organizations. The integrated applications will serve as robotic advisors to the customers and also these apps will be used in balancing people’s budgets, which is one of the most important tasks. Nowadays, due to the advancements in the Fintech sector has lead the AI to introduce auto-bots which are the side-kicks of every financial trader sitting out there in the financial market. These auto-bots use several complex machine learning algorithms to understand the financial curve of the stocks which are being sold and bought. After learning, these AI-embedded systems sell/purchase your stocks, most certainly, on profit. For organizations, Fintech and AI have introduced merchant solutions and several fraud detection modules which are of great use to the industry.

Fintech is nowadays, the hot topic no matter which business meeting, seminar or congregation you attend. It is basically an amalgam of two major domains, the finance and technology and the main purpose of this unity is to rule out the traditional ways which have been exploitative in nature to the customers and have resulted in bringing catastrophic downfall on several businesses. Fintech aims to provide the people with the easiest and usable solutions to those problems which have caused a hindrance in promoting the businesses across the globe. At first, the proponents were of the view that Fintech will only bring about a change in banking and finance sector but no, their supposition was wrong. The Fintech has managed to bring innovation to the extent that it has remodelled the real estate sector as well. Several banks have started shifting their larger buildings and turning the services they provide on-site, online and this strategy has brought up a revolution in enhancing the user experience. This is a pretty great example which shows that banks are embracing technologies to bring about a change in their way of trading because this is the only way they can get to attract more and more customers. You might be thinking of what it has to do with the real estate. The point is, since the banks are moving from on-site to online, there will be plenty of available workspaces which will be utilized in maintaining co-ventures between several organizations which will, in turn, increase the price of the real estate sector thus causing a property boom in the relevant areas. The successful startups will generate income and will increase productivity. On the other side of the equation, the transportation, trade and communication costs will decline thus further increasing the popularity level of the real estate market in a specific area. Many buildings which lay vacant and deserted, in hope of any company or bank to take them, will be sold or rented individually because, with the increase in the sales and businesses of Fintech firms, the real estate business will escalate as well. There will be no any monopoly of real estate agents in certain areas or towns because every single property will be listed on an online portal which will promote the buy-from-owner culture, thus ruling out the agent who demands a huge sum of money on every single deal he cuts. Welcome to the world of Fintech.  

Ondernemingen steken via hun investeringsfondsen steeds meer geld in FinTech-gerelateerde startups . Deze bedrijven, die technologische innovaties voor de financiële sector ontwikkelen, wisten in de eerste zes maanden van dit jaar wereldwijd al ruim 2.5 miljard dollar binnen te slepen. Dat blijkt uit de Pulse of Fintech, een KPMG-onderzoek dat iedere drie maanden kijkt naar de investeringen in Fintech op wereldwijde schaal. 2017 is wat FinTech-investeringen betreft in ieder geval een goed jaar. In de eerste zes maanden van dit jaar investeerden bedrijven wereldwijd voor een bedrag van 2,6 miljard dollar in fintech. Dat is 21 procent van de totale investeringen die in de eerste helft van 2017 werden gedaan. In 2016 lag dit percentage nog op 17 procent.  Meer investeringsfondsen dan durfinvesteerders “Toch moet de conclusie zijn dat de investeringen in fintech stabiel zijn”, constateert Ank van Wylick, FinTech-partner bij KPMG. Van Wylick: “De buy-out van HD uit Toronto door Amerikaanse Vista Equity Partners met een waarde van 3,6 miljard dollar vertekent het beeld aanzienlijk. Wel zien we dat de herkomst van de investeringen verandert. Bedrijven zijn prominenter aanwezig en de echte durfinvesteerders, zoals de private equity huizen, lijken wat gas terug te nemen.” Meer geld naar volwassen startups   In Europa namen de investeringen in fintech toe van 880 miljoen dollar in de eerste drie maanden van dit jaar tot 2 miljard dollar in het tweede kwartaal. Het aantal transacties daalde van 100 tot 90. Gemiddeld wordt er dus een hoger bedrag als kapitaal in de Fintech-startups geïnjecteerd per investering. In de Verenigde Staten ziet KMPG juist het omgekeerde: daar daalt de gemiddelde investering in de meer volwassen startups van 22 miljoen dollar in 2016 naar 10 miljoen dollar in de eerste zes maanden van dit jaar. En ook de Europese investeringen in early stage startups zitten in de lift met een stijging van de gemiddelde investering van 3,5 miljoen dollar tot 5,4 miljoen dollar. Met als opvallende uitschieter het Ierse Plynk , een series A bedrijf dat erin is geslaagd om in het tweede kwartaal van dit jaar een bedrag van ruim 28 miljoen dollar op te halen.  Veel belangstelling voor insurtech Qua sectoren nemen in Europa met name de investeringen in insurtech , technologische vernieuwing in de verzekeringssector, flink toe. Zo wist het Zweedse BIMA, dat actief is met mobiele toepassingen op het gebied van micro-insurance, 55 miljoen dollar op te halen. En het Britse Gryphon Group Holdings trok voor een totaal bedrag van 229 miljoen dollar aan durfinvesteringen aan. Van Wylick: “Ondanks het feit dat de verzekeringsmarkt in Europa relatief gefragmenteerd is, zullen de investeringen in beginnende startups in deze sector aan de orde van de dag blijven.” Goede vooruitzichten Van Wylick verwacht dat de fintech-investeringen in Europa ook de rest van dit jaar op een hoog niveau zullen blijven. Van Wylick: “De komst van de Payment Service Directive 2 alsmede de invoering van de EU General Data Protection Regulation zullen de belangstelling voor regtech en open banking-platformen doen toenemen. Ook Brexit blijft in dit kader van belang. De uiteindelijke uitkomst kan grote gevolgen hebben voor de regelgeving waarmee bedrijven te maken krijgen. Hoewel verstoring van het huidige landschap onontkoombaar zal zijn, bieden deze veranderingen de komende jaren ook nieuwe mogelijkheden voor technologische vernieuwing in de financiële sector.”  

A tale of dodgy forex and currency brokers is always to be seen on the first or the second page of every newspaper you ever look at. It is rather a shame to see because so far the currency and forex sector is concerned, mostly the people who work in this sector belong to a clean background which has nothing to do with any kind of the complex chit-chats of the stock brokers or the like. Their task is to arrive at the workplace and be there until evening, and the moment class strike six, pack up and leave. These are the actions of a few black sheep which have ruined the name of forex and currency sector. These black sheep are trying to make every negative way look legit and in the process of doing so, those with clean slates are getting affected because they are being used as pawns to attract more and more clients. In the world prior to technology, the forex and currency exchange sector were considered one of those sectors where the customers get butchered brutally. It used to be one of those sectors where the agents used to charge their desired percentages of you wanted to send money to your loved ones abroad. With the inception of Fintech, most importantly soon after the introduction of peer to peer foreign exchange, the taxes over money which the customers send over to their loved ones has been decreased enormously. Previously, banks were in the habit of charging as much higher amounts as around $40 even on a meagre amount of $10, which is indeed an unhealthy behaviour. There was a specific limit set if you wanted to send money abroad. If your family was in need of smaller amounts, the taxes and the rest of the charges made it look it a total mess. Now that Fintech is in the game and has introduced several merchants which a person can use to send/receive money, there is no further need of an agent who can enable your money to travel far off to the other continent because payment merchants like, Paypal, Stripe, Skrill and many more, the foreign exchange sector has harnessed and evolved with time. These payment merchants are properly regulated and are associated with several credible banks. This amazing development is attributed to Fintech which has lent transparency to an exorbitantly corrupt sector. 

We are now in the last chapter and we’ll discuss how Fintech is changing the business. The mighty financial technology is reshaping our lives by bringing innovation to almost every walk of life. From the inception of crowd funding to personal budgeting to cryptocurrency, Fintech has proven to be an urn of hundreds of new and practical ideas. This is due to the usefulness of the Fintech that capitalists and institutional investors are placing their trust in this industry by investing millions and billions of dollars. This chapter is more like an overview of the Fintech industry and its bounties which are making it as one of the most-liked sectors of business. First of all, the Fintech has totally redefined the way we used to pay. Did you ever consider swiping your card in the flea market or a yard sale? Of course not. It was something which was once thought of as unbecoming. With the companies like Stripe and Square, the people can now make smaller transaction irrespective of wherever they are. Talking about latest financial trends and not mentioning the role of cryptocurrency, would be an utter injustice to the readers and the domain itself. Bitcoin got itself introduced in the Fintech industry in the year 2009. It came to the forefront and marked several milestones all in once, one after another. The inception of cryptocurrency laid the foundation of the notorious yet widely sought-after idea of anonymity in the domain of electronic payments. Currently, the cryptocurrency has gone far beyond than the Bitcoin miners and financial organizations are trying to explore the block-chain technologies in order to find out how beneficial these ideas can prove in successfully furthering their business. Let’s clear the concept of block-chain here because this is something which we will be using in our upcoming articles. It is a type of financial technology which is used to drive the Bitcoin by recording the transactions in a central repository, normally a database itself. In other words, it acts a ledger of the data which is used in the Bitcoin transactions. The main aim of this technology is to keep a track of the currency but the privilege of tracking down the money won’t be made available for everyone. In another discipline, Fintech has put an end to the business which needed hefty amounts from the owner himself. It can be inferred that Fintech has put a full-stop to the idea of sole-proprietorship. By introducing the idea of crowdfunding, Fintech has become the only business domain which is crowned to have fathered crowdfunding based start-ups like, GoFundMe, Patreon, Indiegogo and much more. Apart from crowdfunding, Fintech also tops in promoting the peer-to-peer lending business by initiating start-ups like Lending Club and Prosper. On these sites, the applicants applying for a loan have to bid on a certain business share while keeping into consideration many factors which qualify a specific share to be invested in. Yet another field where the Fintech is changing people’s financial messes is the field of budgeting. Nobody loves making a budget plan for the whole month because nobody wants to live a financially calculated life. People seldom understand that budgeting helps in the betterment of their own financial health and stands them out of the needy crowd. In order to maintain the budget, there are apps nowadays, most important of which are, Mint and YNAB (You Need a Budget). With these apps, you can now input your overall earnings per month or per annum. After inputting the earnings, you can create several categories and list the tasks where you think the money will be spent. The app will allocate a certain budget to be spent on a daily basis apart from those areas where the money is mandatory to be spent. It will give you a complete report on the inflow and outflow of the money. This way, you will be updated with every single penny you’ll spend which will aid in keeping a track of all your expenditures. It will also act as a payment-monitor and will beep the moment you go from normal spending to over spending. Final Word: Do you need a mortgage, a car loan, or want to stash your earnings in an interest-earning bank account? Do you want to pay via your phone or via credit card? Do you need some money to develop a prototype for the social welfare start-up which is going to start after a while? This, and a lot more is what you can achieve by the mighty Financial Technology. Fintech is making banks, an obsolete concept to remember by introducing the cell-phone accounts which you carry with yourself no matter wherever you travel to. The security layers which used to secure your financial account have been increased exponentially because nobody likes his/her account to get hacked if the device is stolen. Reasonable efforts are underway to clear the barriers which are proving a hindrance in making the cryptocurrency, an integral part of the Fintech. Being researchers in the field of Fintech, we term all of the readers of this white-paper, the luckiest ones because you still have a chance to prove your worth by the time this nascent field of business strengthens its roots. There is an extent of saturation in every field, but Fintech. Here, there are as many ideas as are the brains out there in total. You can become an IT expert and can find the application of your field in almost every sector of Fintech. If you don’t have a taste in IT, you can go for management after spending a couple of years in the industry and come out as a management trainee who’ll be best suited for managing the IT projects. No matter which industry you intend to join, always remember that Fintech is the future. No other field of business or finance has the potential to offer the bounties which are being offered by the Fintech these days. So, save your time and effort as well. Invest in Fintech today, to savour its bounties tomorrow.