Vlad Tropko from Digital Horizon on the importance of team psychology in startup success, overcoming prejudices and biases in VC investments, and the evolving landscape of venture capital
“Payments aside, there’s still a boundary today between what you do on your banking app and the rest of your online presence, but that’s going to change drastically over the next few years,. The focus on client experience means companies are increasingly delivering services to customers when and where they want them. In that context, there’s no sense in logging on to a separate bank app to get your financial services. Embedded is the way to go.”
"The first trend is the rise of NFTs. We’ve seen this more broadly than just fintech — NFTs have permeated every industry, spanning everything from finance, to art, to fashion. With more substance, NFTs have the potential to be more than a short-term trend for the fintech industry.
The second trend is the shift in online checkouts. New players in the industry are levelling the field for smaller e-commerce providers against the likes of Amazon. Companies including Bolt have enabled one-click checkout both online and offline, helping offer consumers an experience to rival industry giants and opening up e-commerce to content companies, like Pinterest.
The third is the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) revolution. BNPL has truly conquered the mainstream, and seemingly everyone now offers some form of deferred payment option to consumers.
Finally, a trend that we first saw in 2020, the increasing dominance of trading apps. In the past 12 months, trading apps have been taking an increasingly large chunk of trade volumes. It’s now possible to move entire markets with retail trading through these apps, something that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.”
“Targeting microbusinesses is very similar to serving individual customers, so those will be the frst to go embedded, with oferings like corporate credit cards or a credit line. The focus for SMEs will be much more on working capital and revenue, with services around receivables, revenue advances, invoice factoring, or marketing cost fnancing. We think for SMEs it’s still early days — we’re investing there because we see potential.”
Over the last decade, companies have been taking an increasingly long time to exit, driven by late-stage US funds deploying significant capital in the European market. But the last two years of public market growth could change that