FinTech Connect Announces New Speakers Ahead of Decennial Show

FinTech StartUps
16.11.2023 11:40 am

December sees the return of Fintech Connect to the ExCel centre in London, marking a decade as Europe’s only dedicated fintech event for the entire ecosystem.

With just three weeks to go until the show opens on 6 December, organisers have announced five more high-profile industry-leaders will appear at the two-day event.

Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance, Francesco Simoneschi, CEO and Founder of TrueLayer, and Dmytro Strelchuk, Strategy & Operations Lead, Revolut, join the already impressive list of confirmed speakers.

Also confirmed are Emma Cherniavsky, UK CEO for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), who will make a keynote presentation on FinTech for Good, and Rajesh Agrawal, Deputy Mayor of London for Business & Chairman London & Partners, who will deliver opening remarks on Day One of the event.

The last decade has been a rollercoaster for the industry, and Fintech Connect has provided a front row seat to every major milestone…

2013

This year saw the first ever Fintech Connect and was a big year for the industry. Challenger bank Revolut was founded, plus Chime, an all-digital, no-fee alternative to traditional banking, and Plaid, a platform that connects applications with users bank accounts, were launched. 2013 also saw PayPal acquire Braintree payments gateway for $800 million.

2014

The year challenger bank Starling was founded was also the year Apple Pay launched. Across the pond, the IRS published virtual currency guidance for tax purposes and Carl Icahn, an activist and PayPal investor, carried out a massive public campaign demanding a PayPal split from eBay.

2015

2015 was the year fintech really entered the mainstream. More than US$13.8 billion in VC funding was deployed to a wide variety of fintech companies globally, more than double the value of VC investment in fintech in 2014. This year also saw the launch of challenger banks Monzo and N26.

2016

The biggest headline of 2016 was the launch of the PSD2 legislation, which helped facilitate innovation in open banking, leading to new offerings in banking, WealthTech and payments, including innovative products in personal finance management such as Moneybox, all while enhancing the offerings of challenger banks.

2017

In 2017, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and many more skyrocketed in price. Gains were so impressive that even gold mining companies switched over to blockchain in an effort to hop aboard the money-train. Elsewhere, Alibaba introduced “smile to pay” facial recognition payments at KFCs in China, a service that allowed users to pay for their food by simply smiling at a 3D camera.

2018

The year Open Banking launched in the UK also saw the government’s first FinTech Sector Strategy, released. In March 2018, plans were set out to maintain and extend the UK’s comparative advantage in FinTech. Revolut unveiled a new AI solution in 2018 to combat card fraud and money laundering, developing deep insights and predictions around customer behaviour to dynamically identify new card fraud patterns without human intervention.

2019

The scandal involving German payment processing firm Wirecard put a spotlight on the importance of fraud detection and risk assessment. Over the previous few years, Wirecard had become one of Europe’s hottest tech stocks, but it was revealed the company was not only facing an accounting scandal but also potentially fraudulent activity. This scandal has highlighted some key lessons for all companies when it comes to fraud detection and risk assessment. 2019 also saw a surge in fintech start-ups valued at more than $1bn.

2020

The year Visa acquired Plaid in a $5.3 billion deal, two European payments giants, Worldline and Ingenico, merged in a $8.6 billion deal to create the fourth-largest company in the payment space. Meanwhile, Qatar banned crypto trading and imposed penalties on firms that provide such services in the financial centre, and Mastercard announced the development of a cutting-edge European cybersecurity centre to address cyber threats faced by European financial institutions.

2021

The Visa plan to acquire Plaid came at a time when large fintech IPOs and exits were rare, and it was seen as a big win for fintech. But as lockdowns were put in place, Plaid’s customers saw a spike in demand. By 2021 the $5.3 billion price tag wasn’t looking so great after all, and the deal was called off. But 2021 was a great year for Fintech; $125B raised, the best year ever for fintech, and out of the 433 fintech unicorns globally,193 were born just in 2021.

2022

We started 2022 on a relatively high note. Mega rounds were still taking place! Decacorns were born. Venture capital was still readily available. Then sometime in the second quarter, things took a turn.

This year saw the collapse of the FTX exchange, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange firms, known for its specialty in buying and selling crypto derivatives, and once valued at about $40 billion—But 2022 saw it go bankrupt, and become mired in scandal.

2023

The most critical technological driver for the Fintech sector this year has been the explosion of AI, with advances over the past few years opening new avenues that are ripe for exploration and development by innovative companies.

This is just one of the topics that will be explored at the tenth Fintech Connect event, where more than 180 speakers will share their insight and expertise on the tech defining the course of the industry. Over the course of the two days, more than 3,000 attendees will hear from and meet inspirational global fintech industry C-suite leaders and start-up innovators under one roof.

The event, comprising four vertical streams – Digital Innovation & Gen AI, Payments, Web3 (the evolution of blockchain), and RegTech & Security – boasts a stellar line-up of visionary fintech industry leaders and renowned experts, spanning payments, banking, solution design, telecoms, law, academia, and regulators.

The last 10 years have seen some incredible highs and lows for the Fintech industry, and this is a chance to get a glimpse into what the next decade has in store.

The full agenda, list of all-star speakers, keynote panel and content themes can be found at https://www.alphaevents.com/events-fintech-connect-london

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