Financial technologies, commonly known as fintech, aim to provide innovative solutions to improve financial services.
They are applied in a variety of fields: electronic payment, crowdfunding, bank account and savings management, insurance and credit, online financial advice, automated investment tools, decision support algorithms and other similar services. These solutions often take the form of mobile applications, changing the public’s relationship with financial institutions and opening up new horizons for transactions.
Atlanta
Atlanta, known as Transaction Alley, is a key location for American fintech: 70% of US payments processed each year pass through the state of Georgia, home to financial industry leaders Equifax, Global Payments and NCR.
The University System of Georgia actively supports the development of fintech in the Atlanta area, through specialized courses such as the Master in Quantitative and Computational Finance (QCF) from Georgia Techthe Fintech Lab at Georgia State University or the inter-university initiative Georgia Fintech Academy.
In addition, support structures dedicated to fintech startups are developing in Atlanta, such as the Fintech Accelerator at Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), and the TTV Capital, fund, with a focus, in some cases, on blockchain, with the Atlanta Blockchain Center incubator and the 11-11 Ventures fund.
Sharing best practices in new financial technologies is also possible thanks to the Fintech Atlanta initiative, spearheaded by the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and the American Transaction Processors Coalition (ATPC) which brings together over 100 Fortune 500 companies, startups and venture capital funds at the international summits it organizes, such as Fintech South.
The Atlanta ecosystem has enabled the emergence of a host of entrepreneurial fintech success stories, including 4 unicorns with historic fund-raisings: Kabbage ($2.5B – acquired by American Express), which provides credit to small businesses via an automated platform, Bakkt ($932M), which enables the integration of cryptocurrencies into regular banking transactions, Greensky ($610M – acquired by Goldman Sachs), which facilitates the creation of credit lines for businesses, and Greenlight ($556M), which offers a debit card system for children in partnership with Mastercard.
