A. Clot (France FinTech): “Fundraising reached 2,3 billion euros in 2021”
Driven by considerable fundraising, the fintech market is one of the most dynamic globally and nationally. Meeting with Alain Clot, founding president of France FinTech, the professional association of French fintech, insurtech and regtech, which has just published its annual barometer.
Decision makers. Can you remind us of the genesis of France FinTech?
Alain Clot. France FinTech is a non-profit association founded in 2015 by fintech entrepreneurs. Born from a desire to make our ecosystem known, to represent it and to animate it, it supports the development of innovative financial services for the benefit of consumers and the emergence of French and European champions. It is structured around two concentric circles: on the one hand, the 260 fintech members, involved in all sectors of financial services, banking, insurance and asset management. This population includes three categories of size and maturity: young shoots, start-ups and fast-accelerating scale-ups. On the other hand, the major partners are divided into two families: academics (fi ntech chairs, schools, associations, research) and around fifty large companies (banks, insurance companies, law firms, consultancies, etc.). These entities do not participate in the management of the association but seek to get closer to the ecosystem.
How do you define fintech?
In our view, it refers to a start-up that is developing an innovative promise based on technology – in particular data – on several underlying banking, insurance and asset management services, but also new branches. emerging technologies such as regtech or services for financial directors and HRDs. It includes a significant technological dimension in mobility, and data technologies and algorithms. To join France FinTech, it must also have exemplary ethical behavior.
“We are one of the most dynamic sectors in French tech”
How do you represent and promote French fintech in the country and abroad?
We carry out three main missions:
– promote the ecosystem in France and abroad. We take part in conferences, interviews or events such as Fintech R:Evolution – the first fintech event in France – or the French FinTech Week, which we have organized jointly with the Banque de France, the AMF and the Swave , the first French fintech incubator;
– represent the ecosystem as an actor of influence vis-à-vis the entities (regulators, European Commission, government, research, academic world, bank, insurance and management company);
– animate the ecosystem thanks to the events mentioned above, our content and our connections. As a co-founding association of the European Digital Finance Association (EDFA), we contribute to broadening the subject of fintech on a European level. We are also involved in themes that are dear to us, such as the financing of the real economy, short circuits, sustainable development, diversity, financial inclusion and financial education.
What is the 2021 assessment for French fintechs?
They recorded another record year which resulted in very strong growth in our ecosystem. Fundraising reached 2,3 billion euros in 2021 for 93 operations, which represents a growth of 174% compared to the previous year. The average transaction ticket also increased sharply (+85%), reaching almost 25 million euros. Our recruitments have been numerous, the sector now has 30 jobs and we expect to hire another 000 people in 10. In addition, three quarters of the transactions concerned series B, C and D, which testifies to the large size of the operations and the maturing of our champions. Out of twenty-four French unicorns at the end of 000, eight are fintech and among them, five emerged last year, in addition to the previous three. Finally, we are one of the most dynamic sectors in French tech and the first represented in the Next2022 index and the second in the French Tech 2021.
“The fintech ecosystem contributes to the sovereignty of our country and must be supported”
What trends can you distinguish?
A promising sector of excellence for France, fintech is rapidly accelerating. It is a growing contributor to qualified employment, to the financing of the economy, to the protection of French heritage, and more generally to our sovereignty. We must support this ecosystem and stimulate traditional players, pushed to innovate by new entrants. Among the fastest growing sectors are insurtech, neobanking, cryptocurrencies, green finance, but also tools to help CFOs and HRDs. There is a significant presence of global investors in fundraising, particularly American and Asian, which shows the attractiveness of our ecosystem. These international players are also the majority in the lifting of unicorns.
What about asset management?
It represents one of the major current development sectors that is growing the most. Today, there are all sorts of new dynamic segments that are developing within asset management such as regtech, tools associated with the universe of the manager, functionalities which contribute to the analysis and management of risk, reporting or even distribution.
“Fintech is accelerating rapidly”
What will be the challenges for this year?
Our continued growth is a key challenge, particularly in terms of human resources. We must continue to train specialists and actively recruit. The acceleration of internationalization as well. In general, our players are becoming more and more visible and need to access higher tickets (over 500 million euros).
As the sector is new, is there still work to be done at the regulatory level?
Nearly 90% of our financial regulation is European in nature. It is effective overall but must continue to evolve in certain areas such as open banking, neo-banking or cryptocurrencies. The national transposition of European standards and the application of these rules may vary according to the actors. It is therefore necessary to apply them uniformly in order to create the conditions for fair competition in the service of citizens and businesses.
