MARKET OVERVIEW
What are the key areas of market opportunity and growth for fintech startups in Poland?
Speaker at #CEE17 Anna Maj, FinTech Expert Country Manager (Poland) at PayTech
In line with global trends, Polish fintechs are coming up with payment-related solutions, such as payment platforms, cross-border payments and digital wallets. Although consumer payment services (e.g. P2P money transfers) are predominant, we can observe growing interest on the part of fintechs in the B2B segment, particularly SMEs, which have been underserved by banks so far. More and more startups see SME payments as a niche to be covered as well as an area for innovation. This is a dormant opportunity that could explode with a number of use cases, some of which are spectacular, as the TransferWise story demonstrates. According to Let’s Talk Payments, the B2B cross-border payment market alone is valued at over USD 150 trillion, over 60 times the e-commerce market. Startups like Xchanger understand SME clients’ specific needs, which should be addressed in a tailor-made manner, and they are targeting that emerging opportunity. Payments have traditionally been the purview of banks. To better meet the needs of clients—both consumers and businesses—however, incumbents should take advantage of the innovation that is being brought to the table by the fintech industry. Based on already-proven cooperation models worldwide, banks can either partner with challengers or invest in new ventures to provide faster and less expensive services, just as fintechs are doing. Besides payments, fintechs in Poland are a source of various innovations focused on short-term financing for SMEs: crediting (e.g. iwoca Poland), as well as e-invoicing and factoring (e.g. Fandla). A fully digital, end-to-end financing process, including seamless application and onboarding; fast credit decisions; flexible financing (both in terms of time and value) and credit scoring based on online data are all advantages that banks might benefit from.
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MORE AND MORE STARTUPS SEE SME PAYMENTS AS A NICHE TO BE COVERED AS WELL AS AN AREA FOR INNOVATION. THIS IS A DORMANT OPPORTUNITY THAT COULD EXPLODE WITH A NUMBER OF USE CASES
SEPTEMBER 2017