New research reveals that supporting micro-entrepreneurs will be one of the key focus areas for FinTech enterprises in 2022. The Fintech Trends for 2022 report by Digital Horizon, a European venture capital fund and venture builder specialising in FinTech and SaaS companies, also identifies the metaverse, “second reality” digital payments and green FinTech as major trends that will drive the sector this year.
Solutions for solopreneurs
COVID has transformed the labour market, leading to an increase in time employment, freelancing and self-employment. Digital Horizon predict that 2022 will be the year the FinTech sector really grasps the needs of solopreneurs through a boom in solutions that support them. Niche companies specialising in bank accounts for freelancers, credit providers suited to gig-workers in the gig economy and platforms providing greater financial stability and social benefits for solopreneurs are all expected to proliferate in 2022.
Payments in the metaverse
With metaverses expected to become an integral part of daily lives, Digital Horizon believes that FinTech, digital currencies and NFTs will become even more important, providing new infrastructure for digital assets and payments, based in open ecosystems so payments and data can be managed and transferred easily.
Green FinTech
The report predicts that green FinTech will become mainstream in the next three to five years, with regulators and society at large demanding that environmental, social and governance (ESG) resilience parameters are an integral part of finance. More and more people are looking to have their money looked after by green, eco-friendly banks.
“The past few years have been unexpected and difficult, but the FinTech industry has adapted to the new challenges and opportunities in our daily lives and driven innovation throughout this time,” Alan Vaskman, Founder and Managing Partner at Digital Horizon, said. “As the world grapples with how life post-COVID will look, as well as the looming green agenda and arrival of metaverses, FinTech’s role in our lives is set to not only continue, but to accelerate.
“As the colourful debit cards, 1-2-3 click transaction apps and payments move into the mainstream, we approach a stage where real, difficult problems need to be addressed by the FinTechs,” Vaskman added. “These include next generation financial infrastructure, availability of credit, deep financial product embedding into rapidly changing consumer spending and ‘person as a business’, while making these more sustainable in the long term.
“It is difficult to predict the future, but I am certain that the seven key trends in Digital Horizon’s report – from the tokenisation of real-world assets to the post-big data era – will all be fundamental to the FinTech industry in 2022.”
