New week, new football fintech scene. This week we’ll be looking into the fintech landscape of World Cup’s Group B AKA England, Wales, Iran, and the US.
England
Home of Big Ben, the Queen…oops the King, and current home to our favourite Egyptian, Mohamed Salah. While the English keep chanting “it’s coming home” to no end, we’ll see if they can even get the fintech cup. England has a pretty good chance of winning this cup since London – the fintech superhub- is considered to be the second highest-ranking FinTech ecosystem worldwide. London is really the driving force behind England’s good fintech reputation. As we know, there’re a lot of sub-categories that fall under the fintech umbrella such as; Insurtech, regtech, payments, lending, wealthtech, etc…. Well, it just so happens that London is the queen of wealthtech where 77% of wealthtech businesses are based there.
The most important aspect of the fintech scene is regulation and the UK seems to have a pretty good handle on that. That’s definitely something to keep in mind!
Wales
Now, moving a little bit to the west of England, there lies another part of the UK; Wales. Now, you might be wondering why two countries from the same country are going head-to-head in World Cup? To know that, crack any history book open. But the short answer is imperialism.
Focusing on the fintech aspect, Wales is in pretty good shape. The country has about 44,000 people employed within the Digital Economy. The main tech hubs are located in Cardiff and Newport. With its great tech environment, Wales provides a decent place for startups during the incubation area to build a business. The most significant part of the Welsh fintech process is that the country is fostering young talent. So much that their newly innovation hub just received EUR 9.5 million in funding.
Iran
Like most countries with an oil-based economy, Iran is still taking baby steps towards the fintech scene. So far, the country has 166 fintech startups. They vary from alternative finance companies such as KarenCrowd (unfortunate name), Jibimo, and 2nate to investing and trading fintech companies such as Senso and Quantcan. But Iran’s fintech wealth lies in its digital payment sector with an expected total transaction value of US$22.12 billion in 2022. Iran’s fintech sector seems promising but one should consider the US sanctions looming over the country’s economy.
The US
Beyonce, LeBron, hot dogs, The US is famous for many things including having the world’s innovation and tech hub i.e., Silicon Valley. It got us Apple, Google, and Facebook, so it is packed with high-tech all around. The country has a thriving digital economy and it’s not just because of its fintech laws or regulation. It is because of Americans’ acceptance of the digital economy, after all, people are the drivers of the economy. It's expected that the US’ largest segment will be digital payments with a total transaction value of US$1,765.00 billion in 2022 and 320.22 million users by 2027. Way much more than Iran’s!
Looks like the fintech cup will not be going home this time as the US wins this round.
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