Fintech, startups tecnológicas que oferecem serviços financeiros, a preços mais baixos do que a Banca, sendo uma alternativa ao crédito bancário.
Este negócio financeiro já é uma realidade para as gigantes tecnológicas.
O Facebook já aceita transferências diretamente no Messenger;
o Google efetua pagamentos através do Google Wallet;
Apple entrou neste mercado através da Apple Pay;
Exemplo de uma é a Zercatto, uma fintech portuguesa que facilita investimentos em bolsa.
Põem em contacto uma lista de experts que partilham a sua carteira de investimentos com investidores de todo o mundo.
Como a Zercatto, há em Portugal outras empresas que, tendo uma raiz tecnológica, se dedicam em exclusivo aos serviços financeiros.
São os casos da Switch Payments, Magnifinance, Seedrs, Advice Front ou da Feedzai.
O volume de financiamentos “alternativos” na Europa superou, no ano passado, os três mil milhões de euros, um crescimento de 144% em relação ao ano anterior.
As fintech estão a pôr em contacto empresas e particulares e, através de uma rede de investidores, proporcionam dinheiro em poucas horas e com um custo inferior ao da banca.
Fintech companies, as they’ve come to be called, are easing payment processes, reducing fraud, saving users money, promoting financial planning, and ultimately moving a giant industry forward.
BillGuard began in 2010 as a service to alert users to hidden fees charged by their banks and credit card issuers. The company earned $3 million of funding on the strength of that product. Since then, it has expanded (and raised another $10 million) to become a nearly comprehensive fraud monitor and spending tracker.
If money talks, then it says that OnDeck has hit upon a special idea. Investors have poured money into the startup, an alternative small business lender. The company has raised $180 million in equity financing and $300 million in debt.
The idea is simple: OnDeck provides small business owners an alternative to banks for loans. Businesses have flocked to OnDeck because it uses a proprietary method to evaluate creditworthiness that works better than the personal credit check that banks rely on.
Wealthfront is one of the biggest players in the growing automated financial advisory space. Founded in 2011, it now has $1 billion under the management of its proprietary algorithms.
Another startup trying to take business from the traditional players, The Currency Cloud is gaining market share in international payments, a space that is 85%-controlled by banks. Based in London and focused on Europe, the company has been very attractive to startups because it is small, able to add new features quickly and adapt to new platforms, things that banks are notoriously bad at.
The latest in a string of successes for Stripe was the announcement in September that it would become a partner of Apple Pay. Stripe is already supporting mobile and e-commerce payments for Twitter, Alibaba and a long list of startups who like the fact that its code is readily available and easy to manipulate.
One of the youngest companies on this list, Epiphyte, founded last year, provides software and consulting to enable banks to legally deal with Bitcoin and crypto-currency platforms. As Bitcoins are increasingly regarded as an asset class, these services have been badly needed by financial institutions. Epiphyte is off to a promising start, having been selected to participate in Startupbootcamp’s 2014 Fintech accelerator in London.
Credit cards are unavailable to or underused by huge parts of the emerging middle class in Brazil, China, and many other countries. AstroPay, the largest cross-border payment services provider in Latin America and a new player in China, provides a fraud-reducing payment card solution that enables merchants to more safely accept payments from individuals in high-fraud areas.
Founded in 2006 as Plastyc, Banking Up (its name since last year), is focused on providing basic financial services to the working poor and “underbanked.” At its core, the product is a prepaid debit card, but the other services it offers—like one free electronically generated check a month and mobile account access—means it can plug the gap for people that don’t have access to standard banking. Recently, the startup has branched out, using its platform to enable business and financial institutions to offer customers branded accounts.
One of the most disruptive startups in any field in recent years, Square did what every Fintech company aims to: provide a simple, tech-driven solution to a widespread problem. In this case, it was the expense and hassle of processing credit card payments at points of sale ranging from food trucks to big box stores. Square sends a mobile-compatible credit card reader to anyone for free.
Paying hundreds or thousands of payees every week – as online ad networks, affiliate networks and marketplaces do – can be a backend nightmare. Tipalti, an international payments platform that recently raised $13 million in funding, has created SaaS technology that automates and simplifies the mass payment process, allowing payers to seamlessly transfer money to payees practically anywhere in the world and be in compliance with banking, tax, anti-terrorist and other regulations.
Flint is in the same game as Square. The startup, launched in 2012, offers retailers a mobile payments processing system, freeing them from desktop point-of-sale systems and the associated setup fees. The difference is that Flint tries to make the process even easier: no hardware is involved. The app simply uses a device’s camera to scan credit and debit cards.
Formerly known as Pageonce, Check changed its name in 2013 to focus on mobile bill payments. (At its founding in 2007, the company had intended to aggregate all of a user’s financial information on a single page.) Today the Check app is designed to consolidate users’ bills in one app that can manage payments and make sure that unpaid balances don’t fall through the cracks and start incurring late fees.
The pain of many small businesses is waiting for payments. For some, minimizing receivables can be the difference between staying afloat for another month or not. Zipmark offers a solution by moving check payments online and processing them overnight. The company vets merchants and customers and then enables payments by “digital check”: the customer clicks a button and the money moves directly from his account to that of the merchant.
With the backing of Y Combinator and $15 million raised early this year, WePay aims to dominate one very specific Fintech segment: online payments for platforms. The company’s first product was designed to make it easier for groups to pool money and make a single payment.
Article source from: FORBES
Fintech companies, as they’ve come to be called, are easing payment processes, reducing fraud, saving users money, promoting financial planning, and ultimately moving a giant industry forward.
BillGuard began in 2010 as a service to alert users to hidden fees charged by their banks and credit card issuers. The company earned $3 million of funding on the strength of that product. Since then, it has expanded (and raised another $10 million) to become a nearly comprehensive fraud monitor and spending tracker.
If money talks, then it says that OnDeck has hit upon a special idea. Investors have poured money into the startup, an alternative small business lender. The company has raised $180 million in equity financing and $300 million in debt.
The idea is simple: OnDeck provides small business owners an alternative to banks for loans. Businesses have flocked to OnDeck because it uses a proprietary method to evaluate creditworthiness that works better than the personal credit check that banks rely on.
Wealthfront is one of the biggest players in the growing automated financial advisory space. Founded in 2011, it now has $1 billion under the management of its proprietary algorithms.
Another startup trying to take business from the traditional players, The Currency Cloud is gaining market share in international payments, a space that is 85%-controlled by banks. Based in London and focused on Europe, the company has been very attractive to startups because it is small, able to add new features quickly and adapt to new platforms, things that banks are notoriously bad at.
The latest in a string of successes for Stripe was the announcement in September that it would become a partner of Apple Pay. Stripe is already supporting mobile and e-commerce payments for Twitter, Alibaba and a long list of startups who like the fact that its code is readily available and easy to manipulate.
One of the youngest companies on this list, Epiphyte, founded last year, provides software and consulting to enable banks to legally deal with Bitcoin and crypto-currency platforms. As Bitcoins are increasingly regarded as an asset class, these services have been badly needed by financial institutions. Epiphyte is off to a promising start, having been selected to participate in Startupbootcamp’s 2014 Fintech accelerator in London.
Credit cards are unavailable to or underused by huge parts of the emerging middle class in Brazil, China, and many other countries. AstroPay, the largest cross-border payment services provider in Latin America and a new player in China, provides a fraud-reducing payment card solution that enables merchants to more safely accept payments from individuals in high-fraud areas.
Founded in 2006 as Plastyc, Banking Up (its name since last year), is focused on providing basic financial services to the working poor and “underbanked.” At its core, the product is a prepaid debit card, but the other services it offers—like one free electronically generated check a month and mobile account access—means it can plug the gap for people that don’t have access to standard banking. Recently, the startup has branched out, using its platform to enable business and financial institutions to offer customers branded accounts.
One of the most disruptive startups in any field in recent years, Square did what every Fintech company aims to: provide a simple, tech-driven solution to a widespread problem. In this case, it was the expense and hassle of processing credit card payments at points of sale ranging from food trucks to big box stores. Square sends a mobile-compatible credit card reader to anyone for free.
Paying hundreds or thousands of payees every week – as online ad networks, affiliate networks and marketplaces do – can be a backend nightmare. Tipalti, an international payments platform that recently raised $13 million in funding, has created SaaS technology that automates and simplifies the mass payment process, allowing payers to seamlessly transfer money to payees practically anywhere in the world and be in compliance with banking, tax, anti-terrorist and other regulations.
Flint is in the same game as Square. The startup, launched in 2012, offers retailers a mobile payments processing system, freeing them from desktop point-of-sale systems and the associated setup fees. The difference is that Flint tries to make the process even easier: no hardware is involved. The app simply uses a device’s camera to scan credit and debit cards.
Formerly known as Pageonce, Check changed its name in 2013 to focus on mobile bill payments. (At its founding in 2007, the company had intended to aggregate all of a user’s financial information on a single page.) Today the Check app is designed to consolidate users’ bills in one app that can manage payments and make sure that unpaid balances don’t fall through the cracks and start incurring late fees.
The pain of many small businesses is waiting for payments. For some, minimizing receivables can be the difference between staying afloat for another month or not. Zipmark offers a solution by moving check payments online and processing them overnight. The company vets merchants and customers and then enables payments by “digital check”: the customer clicks a button and the money moves directly from his account to that of the merchant.
With the backing of Y Combinator and $15 million raised early this year, WePay aims to dominate one very specific Fintech segment: online payments for platforms. The company’s first product was designed to make it easier for groups to pool money and make a single payment.
Article source from: FORBES
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