Three things I keep betting on.
I'm a thematic investor across early-stage fintech. I'm currently focused on the following thematic areas:
Fintech Is Everywhere
Fintech is being embedded into every element of commerce. From the Uber you took to get to work to the member management software your local gym uses, fintech is everywhere and is only becoming more ubiquitous.
The most interesting companies aren't pure-play fintechs anymore. They're vertical software businesses that happen to own a financial primitive: payments, accounts, lending, insurance, sitting natively inside the workflow they're already powering. When I look at a startup in this space, I want to see a founder who understands the vertical as deeply as they understand the financial product.
Stitching the Financial Fabric Together
I believe anyone building financial services products (startups & incumbents alike) wants to build at 'internet speed'. The thing that usually holds them back is interfacing with legacy financial services infrastructure.
Companies that can 'stitch the financial fabric' of these two worlds together will drive the most change in the industry. Banking-as-a-service, KYC and identity, real-time payments rails, programmable ledgers. None of it sounds sexy at a dinner party, but it's how the next decade of fintech actually gets built.
The legacy stack isn't going anywhere, which means the bridge to it is where the durable businesses sit. I've watched founders smash their heads against this wall enough times to know it's a real problem worth solving.
It's Going To Get Personal
The financial services industry has historically taken a 'one size fits all' approach to the way it operates. I believe this will radically change with products personalised for every person and their circumstances: banks for nurses, lenders for tradies, and financial advice tailored to your specific needs. It's going to get really personal in the best possible way.
The reason it can happen now is that the cost of building and distributing a financial product has collapsed. You no longer need a national brand or a branch network, which means a focused founder with deep insight into a profession or community can build something better for that group than any bank ever could. When I look at this kind of company, the founder's depth of understanding of their niche matters more to me than almost anything else.