Schalast | New payment and investment behavior

It should come as no surprise that the corona pandemic also has the FinTech sector firmly under control. Persistent restrictions affecting several areas of life have changed consumer behavior and accelerated digitization. This development is not limited to payment behavior and, in particular, contactless payments. Rather, it can currently be observed how our everyday life is shifting more and more from the real to a digital world. This change is affecting the way we work, socialize, organize and consume - as well as how we invest. From our point of view, the main drivers of this change are neither FinTechs nor banks, but the customers themselves (customer-centric). It is they who call new structures on the scene through their usage behavior.

The ongoing crisis involuntarily led to innovative technologies being tested, used and established. This makes it clear that our economy will inevitably reach its limits without immediate digitization.

Despite - or perhaps because of - the currently challenging environment, many FinTechs have increased their capital significantly since the beginning of the Corona crisis (e.g. Auxmoney EUR 150 Mio., N26 EUR 85 Mio., Scalable EUR 50 Mio., Trade Republic EUR 40 Mio.). As a result, German FinTechs are aiming high in the coming year. But this will not be equally feasible for all FinTechs. Many current players will disappear from the market or join forces with other market participants. This could possibly be facilitated by the fact that many business models are similar to those of the competition and the vast majority of FinTechs are not yet in the black.