The term “fintech” refers to several different business models that are nested together by their relationship with financial services. Four core business models have gotten most of the traction with investors and customers. Some are more advisable than others.
Financial services executives are increasingly bullish on artificial intelligence. But introducing AI into financial services introduces problems for risk functions.
Consumer fintech consists of unbundling services that previously came together due to high acquisition costs.
In the SMB lending space, the entry of new players and the expansion of PayPal, Shopify, and Square into the merchant cash advance space will cause customer acquisition costs (CAC) to increase, while putting downward pressure on customer lifetime value (LTV).
Bluevine will double down on its effort to become a one-stop-shop for SMB financial services, raising $102.5 million to expand its suite of business banking products. Bluevine’s approach differs from the default fintech strategy of de-bundling financial services.
African SMB lender Lidya will expand to Eastern Europe, the Nigerian company announced, targeting $1.1 billion in European loans. The SMB lender will bring its model of fast loan disbursement first to Poland and the Czech Republic.