Since January 2020, French fintechs have raised 612,2 million euros

October 2, 2020 | Publications

The fifth edition of Fintech Revolution, organized by the France Fintech association, will take place on October 15 at Station F, in partnership with the JDN.

You have decided to keep FinTech R: Evolution face-to-face while most professional events have gone virtual. Why ?
Alain Clot. The board met a number of times to decide whether to do it virtual or physical, or a mixture of the two. There has been a strong demand from the ecosystem, our members and partners to come together. No partner withdrew, we even had new requests (the event was scheduled for last April, editor's note) like that of the Banque de France. Obviously, when we decided to keep it, we divided the gauge by two (around 700 people, editor's note) and have taken social distancing and safety measures. We have also decided to allocate 15% of places to students and teachers with reduced prices in order to promote audience diversity.

For this 5th edition, you have chosen the Beyon Frontiers theme. What is behind it?
There are several axes behind the word border. The first is obviously the international. The European passport greatly stimulates the internationalization of models since it allows not to start from scratch. Contrary to what is often thought, financial services were not international until now due in particular to taxation and local customs. But digital technology has created uses that are more or less the same everywhere, whether in payment, crowdfunding or even investment advice. The other frontier, which is becoming more and more porous, is that of financial professions. The Small & Medium Entreprises are increasingly financed with market techniques traditionally reserved for the CIB (corporate and investment bank, editor's note), banking jobs are getting closer to insurance jobs and vice versa, telecom operators and mass distribution become bankers ...
The third frontier that we have identified is technological. We are seeing the arrival of neurocognitive and behavioral sciences in financial services. Finally, there is the skills frontier. We see in fintech, which employs around 30 people in France, a whole battalion of talents coming from traditional players, tech, regulation… Obviously, there is still a lot of progress to be made in the composition of the teams. management of start-ups, especially in terms of gender diversity. There are only 000% of fintech founders in France.

What other themes will be discussed during the event?
We are going to deal with societal themes that are dear to us such as impact, diversity and green finance. As we traditionally like to put counterpoints to Fintech Revolution, we are also going to deal with bubble phenomena, whether financial or customary. We are going to invite journalist Michel Turin who wrote a corrosive book on start-ups in which he tells what he thinks of the inflation of tech jargon, of fashion effects, in order to make us think. We are going to ask ourselves if it is possible to build a global giant from France, we will reflect on Europe's place in the US-China battle, we will update our reading of the relationship between groups and start-ups. Other themes will be discussed such as frugalism, retirement, 5G, quantum computing, new credit, insurance, new consumer expectations. Of course, we will talk about the crisis and its consequences, without tongue in cheek.

Exactly, what was the impact of the crisis on French fintech?
There was first an effect of astonishment as in all sectors, followed by a series of measures such as lowering charges, reducing surface areas, postponing charges or even discussions of funding interrupted. To date, there has been no fintech failure to our knowledge. This does not mean that there will not be. The lifting operations resumed fairly quickly. This month, French fintechs raised 48,4 million euros in 11 deals, an average of 4,4 million euros per deal. There is still a lot of discussion going on. Since January 2020, fintechs have raised 612,2 million euros. By way of comparison, in 2019, 699 million euros were raised in total. Which means that fintechs have already reached 88% of last year's amount despite the April, May and June hole. The average ticket is over 13 million euros, 20% more than last year. The 2020 vintage is rather promising even if it is necessary to be extremely careful since the crisis will last several years.

Are you confident for the years to come?
This crisis has made it possible to accelerate the economic development of fintech in France. Consumers make greater use of remote financial services, as do Small businesses and SMEs. We are witnessing the development of professions around asset management, private management, everything related to regulations, the fight against money laundering, KYC (know your customer, customer identification process, editor's note). International players are increasingly interested in the French market and the proportion of our members involved in several countries has become more important. Not to mention that a dozen actors are becoming unicorn seeds!

SOURCE> Newspaper

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