Bernard Louis Roques
How can we portray innovation in France? How can the dynamism of FinTech/InsurTech pioneers be assessed? How do we identify and assess their expectations in terms of legislation, funding, and support for innovation?
From the internet revolution to artificial intelligence, tremendous innovation has occurred in the last ten years. Today the FinTech/ InsurTech field is booming notably in the fields of finance, crowdfunding, payment, insurance and blockchain. Finance and insurance have recently faced huge legislative changes, beginning with credit and payment, as well as a technological explosion centered on AI andblockchain.
The most rewarding concept in the coming years resides in technologies around the concept of the argumented adevice. This entails improving the added value of advisers for their clients with AI-based tools, automated language processing and robotic automation. In the field of payment, theses new developments are being integrated and are revolutionizing the end-user experience.
To grasp the scope of the digitalization and the on-going digital transformation of the financial world, let’s have a closer at the French FinTech ecosystem, with more than 500 new start-ups created every year in payment, credit, insurance or services to SMEs, to mention the post popular areas of innovation.
France is a rich ground for the development of technology and innovative finance projects: the country is known around the world for its excellent scientific field, and is at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence. French Millennials, are becoming increasingly interested in these new services, which provide them with a better, more intuitive, and streamlined customer experience.
This favorable cultural dynamic is boosted by legislative initiatives aimed at promoting mobility and openness to newcomers. Bankers and insurers are becoming more eager to collaborate with start-ups in order to develop long-term competitive advantages and to accelerate their digital transformation.They are choosing open-innovation by establishing a variety of channels to better collaborate with new start-ups.
In contrast to other countries, French FinTechs, like other start-ups, can benefit from a wide number of state and public assistance right away (through the Public Investment Bank - BPI, grants, loans, tax credits, and so on). FinTechs can also easily raise capital from private investors as a result of these public processes.
Furthermore, the French government has made a number of steps in support of technology and entrepreneurship, as well as the development of financial start-ups. Paris seeks to improve its position in the European financial system as a result of Brexit.
“French Millennials, are becoming increasingly interested in these new services, which provide them with a better, more intuitive, and streamlined customer experience”
On March 10th, Truffle Capital & the governmental agency Finance Innovation will release a new ranking called “FinTech 100”. It has been initiated by Truffle Capital in collaboration with Groupe BPCE, Sopra Steria Group, and Sopra Banking Software. The much-anticipated ranking differs from other rankings thanks to the quantitative and qualitative dimension of its study, and its detailed data analysis on the industry. By weighing the four key criteria of fundraising, job creation, revenue and revenue growth, the ranking provides a comprehensive mapping of the French FinTech and InsurTech ecosystem.
The Fintech 100 provides a good view of the booming start-ups& scale-ups ecosystem. A useful information as French start-ups are increasingly attracting new graduates who want to take up the challenges of entrepreneurship.“Indeed, 25 percent of new business school graduates are now starting their careers in start-ups, either creating or joining them” notes Bernard-Louis Roques, CEO and Co-Founder of Truffle Capital.
Historical financial industry players, such as Truffle Capital, have developed their own FinTech/InsurTech investment structures to enhance the ecosystem and build a pool of possible strategic partners.
With a 20-year track record in Tech companies, a unique DNA of Business Builders, and a specialized international team, Truffle Capital is ideally positioned to support the maturity of the FinTech market. Truffle Capital is establishing itself as a FinTech pioneer in Europe and is well-known for its incubator, but also for its early-stage investments initiated back in 2018. Starting 2022, Truffle intends to specialize in the scale-ups area with its new Scale-ups fund currently being raised.
In the next few years, we are going to see a very profound transformation with the rise and uses of new dematerialized services. We expect an increase in M&A activity, with larger deals as corporates and FinTechs seek to gain scale in new sectors and acquire complementary solutions, while emphasizing on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) andfocusing on banking substitutes and core banking platform modernization.
