The company valuation rating might not be the correct way to understand the leaders but it does paint a picture of the global trends and patterns.

Recently, CB Insights published their Global Unicorn Club 2024 edition. In the ‘Financial Services’ section, there is a patchwork of what is happening worldwide.

1. Account2Account Payments Tech & Money Remittances.

This is not new, direct bank account to bank account payment is actually one of the oldest scenarios in the payments world. However, the global rise of Fast Payment Systems due to the universal banking clearing systems upgrade led to a complete revolution in many markets. All too well-known PIX in Brazil or UPI in India, but also FPS in the UK, Osko in Australia, QRIS in Indonesia, PromptPay in Thailand, SBP in Russia, overall 50+ countries.

Real-time, instant bank transfers or Fast Payment Systems are quickly winning over bank card payments in everyday consumer preferences. Cross-border fast payment schemes ruled by the Central Banks are challenging the SWIFT and correspondent banking networks.

Account to account as a payment or payout solution has been weaved by the cross-border money remittance companies for a while now. FinTechs like Wise, Thunes, and Nium have been on it since the late 2010s. They built their banking network that, in turn, grew out of the traditional money transfer systems.

A2A seems to be a new buzzword for Payments Tech. I strongly believe the money remittance companies, not the payment acceptance ones, are the closest right now in a race to win over this emerging niche. 

And when CBDCs come into our daily life, these players will benefit the most.

2. Spend Management & Payroll Management.

Spend management used to be one of the core banking functions for those digital banks focused on the B2B segment. It still is, however, it seems that the spend management went wild with the corporate card issuance, corporate payments, distributed teams payroll, etc. 

Personally, it seems to me that it simply mirrors the global shift in how we work. People and businesses working in tech, digital nomads, distributed remote teams, and the complete reliance of every tech business on the infrastructure of multiple digital services that have to be paid with bank cards (AWS, DigitalOcean, etc.). 

Many Enterprise Techs (like Deel) are now tackling the global payroll issue and the relationship with the outsourced workers. For now, crypto is still the answer for multiple smaller tech companies.

3. Compliance Tech & Fraud Prevention.

Never before have I seen so many Compliance and Fraud Prevention techs focused on serving the Fintech Industries. It seems that payments and compliance are converging soon. I am already seeing the titles like ‘Payments & Digital Identity Manager’ here and there. 

Rightly so, the Payments Tech is very well aware of the growing need for behavioral analytics & identity management. 

Distinguishing real people from bots or AI-generated ones is not in the sci-fi future, it is a strong pain of our current times in the mid-2020s. Understanding the people behind the transactions is no longer a compliance or financial monitoring job prerogative.

To sum up

While digital banking, lending, payment acceptance, and various core infrastructure services are still quite relevant as the market beakers, my eyes are on the growing industries that tackle the rising issues of the upcoming 2030s.