• Claire Ferté, Fintech Project Manager at Business France


• 13.07.2022 02:05 pm

Oh, France, the land of baguettes, wine and... Fintechs?

France’s fintech scene is attracting more investors and bigger tickets, and Money2020 Europe last month was a demonstration of just why the sector is garnering such traction. Business France, supported by CB, brought 12 of France’s most promising fintechs to the French Pavilion, including ubble, which is soon to be acquired by Checkout.com to expand its financial product portfolio.

In 2021, France’s fintechs raised more than double the amount achieved in 2020, and the country overtook Sweden to join the top 3 destinations in Europe for fintech investments. This year is on course to blow 2021 out of the water. In April alone, 9 deals raised €119.7 million, bringing the total raised since 1^st January to just under €2 billion, more than double the same period last year (+109%), according to France Fintech. 3 startups (PayFit, Spendesk, Qonto) achieved unicorn status this year, joining the ranks of 8 other French fintechs.

The French Tech pavilion at Money 20/20 Europe was abuzz with activity over the 3 days of the show, with an impressive representation of different subsectors of the fintech world, including mobile payments, Banking as a Service (BaaS) and remote ID verification.

With a number of strong players, it’s perhaps expected that the French fintech scene will continue to climb from strength to strength; CB, in particular, is recognised for the support they offer to emerge companies.

CB continually seeks the next innovation that will improve the everyday lives of customers and merchants with better payment processes. That’s why it created LAB by CB, a driver of innovation and an incubator for new trends and why it organises innovation awards which are widely recognised to be an indicator of relevance and success.

As a non-profit economic interest group, CB can offer unparalleled, neutral and trusted support to fintechs that are driving improvements in card & mobile payments, and continually push for new ways to integrate payments into digital, omnichannel customer journeys.

With exciting solutions emerging from the country at its current rate, it’s no surprise that the French delegation at Money 20/20 made such a splash.

Missed them at Money20/20? Meet the French Tech delegation:

Credit scoring API

• Algoan is Europe's leader in Credit Scoring API. It provides fintechs, retailers, and financial institutions with credit decisioning tools that can be embedded via API into processes for Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), credit origination, car subscriptions, and even mortgages. Based on the loan applicant's Open Banking data, Algoan's scoring solutions can reduce the credit risk by up to 50% for the lenders.

Digital financing platform

• Basikon enables personalised, seamless experiences for customers, partners and employees. The Basikon solution for credit cover leasing, guarantees, revolving credit, floor planning and more. Quick and easy to integrate into all systems, the Basikon solution is agile and facilitates decision-making acceleration for projects.

Cash management

• Cashlab combines SaaS technology and cash expertise to simplify cash management.

Cashback

• CDLK provides retail banks with a personalised, automated cashback loyalty programme linked to purchases made by using the bank’s card at partner merchants.
• Plebicom creates loyalty rewards solutions. These innovations cover shopping vouchers (such as cashback, flash tickets, online and in-store vouchers), white-label loyalty programmes and hundreds of active media supports via mobile, mobile apps, browser extensions & more.  Plebicom’s solutions boost the use of your payment method of choice, enhance your loyalty programme, and increase your turnover.

Contactless mobile payments

• Dejamobile provides secure white-label mobile transaction solutions to improve digital payments for banks, prepaid card issuers and fintechs, and a ReadyToTap payments solution for merchants.

Data security

• MiTrust revolutionises personal data sharing by allowing users to select, filter and share qualified personal data directly from eligible data sources (banks, telcos, energy providers, government departments, etc.) to other online sites.

In-store acceptance

• Nepting specialises in payment acceptance solutions and services which support businesses with an innovative multi-channel electronic payment offer. Their solution is compatible with all means of payment: mPOS, retail, EFTPOS, ATMs, e-commerce & more. With Nepting, flexibility, customisation and attentive customer service are a promise.

• Preludd offers solutions for added value for terminals and optimal payment paths for consumers. This includes secure connections for PoS payment terminals and simplified fleet management tools for distributors and maintainers.

BaaS

• Swan is an easy API solution to integrate white-label banking features into user workflows. Achieve a super smooth user experience in less than 5-minutes across
  accounts, cards and IBANs.

Risk management & cash flow solutions

• TradeIn is the only fintech that offers complete payment risk management and cash-flow financing solutions, in real-time. TradeIn’s collaborative platform enables instant credit assessment of companies so that users can Know Your Customers, protect their company against risks and automate cash-flow management.

Remote ID verification

• Ubble makes online identity verification even more reliable than a face-to-face check, by using live video streaming and computer vision for both ID documents and face recognition.  Ubble eradicates friction from online ID verification, detects document ID fraud and provides security and GDPR compliance to your users'​ most sensitive data.

Secure omnichannel payment

• Voxpay offers omnichannel solutions which allow credit card transactions to be cashed during a telephone conversation, without revealing the cardholder's bank details. This technology eliminates complicated collection & billing processes for call centres, collection agencies, e-commerce companies, tourism operators, accounting departments and more. Secure remote payments, open up new sales channels and boost security with VoxPay

Collection for 3rd parties

• API Money by W-HA is a solution for the payments industry benefiting from W-HA’s technical and regulatory expertise. An all-in-one offer, API Money helps manage payments by integrating payment flows within your platform and guaranteeing total regulatory compliance. W-HA provides professionals with its own turnkey solutions for electronic money (API-money) and collection by bank card (Contodeo).

So, next time you’re enjoying a French cheese or a bottle of French wine, think about the payment process you used to make your purchase. Chances are, it was thanks to a French fintech!