The ‘fintech’ ecosystem gains strength. In the last year, the number of this type of companies in Spain has increased by 15%, from 292 to 337 startups that develop technological solutions related to the financial sector. These data, collected in the X-Tech-Report-Spain-2019 Report prepared by the consulting firm Finnovating, reveal the good evolution of this type of companies in the country, a relatively young market, but with a marked growth trend. This is evidenced by the 64% increase in ‘fintechs’ recorded in the last four years, compared to 16% in the previous period (from 2011 to 2014).
“Business to business”
The business model that is most offered, according to the data collected in the analysis, is the ‘business to business’ or B2B (34.4%), while those that are aimed exclusively at the final customer (B2C) represent 18, 9% The activities with the highest number of ‘startups’ are loans and payments, followed by the area of investment and neobanks. In almost a third of cases, ‘cloud computing’ is its main technological base, closely followed by ‘big data’ and ‘machine learning’. While ‘blockchain’ technology and ‘chatbots’ do not currently have such a presence.
The companies in the sector have an average of 20 workers. The majority are those that are between 10-50 employees (41.7%), followed closely by those whose workforce is below 10 workers (40.5%). Although a large majority of ‘startups’ is within the qualification of small businesses, in terms of job creation it is estimated that the sector has already generated around 7,500 direct jobs. A number that will increase if estimates are met: 64% plan to hire in the next 12 months.
The forecasts for 2019 is that the ‘fintech’ sector generates 3,500 jobs, with the incorporation of an average of 10 people to each company before the end of the year. From Finnovating they believe that there will be a transfer of professionals from the traditional sector, who will contribute their experience, together with new incorporations with a technological profile. Positions related to information technology (IT), business development or related to communication and ‘marketing’ will be the most required, both ‘senior’ and ‘junior’.
Madrid, the capital ‘fintech’
Geographically, Madrid is the community where the headquarters of most of them are located (39%), followed by the province of Barcelona (23%). The Valencian Community (7.2%) and Andalusia (3.4%) are located further away. It emphasizes that 6.3% of those operating in our country have their base of operations in the United Kingdom.
Fintech The new global route of ‘fintech startups’ Since its emergence in the USA. UU and the United Kingdom over 10 years ago, and its subsequent flourishing in China, new financial technology companies have spread globally.
The most valued countries
As for the most valued countries to scale a ‘startup fintech’, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru are pointed out in Latin America. While Portugal, Germany and France are the ones that offer the most facilities in Europe. Regarding Spain, in the report last year, 77.8% of companies in this sector said they would use the country to expand in the respective markets and as a point of union between the two continents.
“The consolidation of the sector and its maturity make the international expansion take a special role, especially in Latin America, where we have already accompanied European ‘scaleups’ on the occasion of the first FinTech Unconference held in Colombia, and which will continue this year Mexico, Peru and Chile”, says Rodrigo García de la Cruz, CEO of Finnovating.
Also published on Medium.