Navigating Local Market Dynamics and the Rise and Fall of Fintech Solutions

This chapter explores the critical role of local market dynamics and regulatory compliance in the fintech sector. It examines the complexities faced by companies like Tally, particularly in their transition strategies and the impact of recent business decisions on their viability.

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Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where Simon Taylor and I spotlight new and exciting fintechs, minus the stock tips.

First up is Agree. If DocuSign and Stripe had a Gen AI-powered baby, it’d be the e-signature platform Agree.

It blends free agreement software with paid invoicing and payments (merging 2 trends: AI-driven law tech with AI-driven finance workflows). Why juggle invoices and contracts when you can reconcile both in one platform? Is this the next big thing in regtech?

Next, they dive into Revenew, an all-in-one payment optimization platform for platforms and marketplaces. The platform consolidates payments from various PSPs, tracks metrics and multiple providers to help ramp up profitability. As startups gravitate towards all-in-one solutions and larger firms go modular, where will the future of payment orchestration take us?

Simon, fresh from the Saudi desert, spotlights Barq, a Saudi digital wallet that achieved 1M customers in just 21 days, making it the fastest-growing neobank outside China (sorry, Revolut). It’s easy to dismiss Barq as a government white elephant, but Simon challenges that notion.

Lastly, they mourn Tally (RIP), a fintech that helped users pay down credit card debt—a problem still surging in the US, and now at an all-time high. Was Tally's pivot from B2C to B2B before shutting down too little, too late, or was distribution the real issue?

Plus, they’re manifesting a fintech future where data infrastructure is collaborative. Why is it single-player by default for companies like Plaid or MX, and how might a multiplayer model transform the landscape?

Raising the standard of quality for embedded finance infrastructure, Newline™ by Fifth Third is an API platform that enables enterprises to launch and scale payment, card and deposit products directly with Fifth Third Bank.

Learn more at newline53.com

00:01:38 - Agree

00:10:09 - Revenew

00:21:12 - Barq

00:30:11 - Tally

00:43:18 - Manifesting Fintech Ideas

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Companies featured:

https://agree.com/

https://revenew.co/

https://barq.com/