Starting a FinTech company is not a simple or straightforward task. When compared to other types of companies, Financial Technology (FinTech) startups have twice as much groundwork to cover before they can call themselves fully operational businesses.
In addition, given that FinTech companies serve as both businesses and providers of technology, the aforementioned startups need to ensure that they perform at the highest possible level on both fronts before they can launch successfully.
The steps involved in launching a new financial technology company
To launch a successful financial technology company, you will need to combine innovative software development of the highest calibre with an original business plan that provides customers with unique benefits.
The financial industry is ripe with prospects for new businesses, but the creation of innovative technologies is just half the battle when it comes to establishing a successful company in the financial technology sector.
If you want to differentiate yourself from traditional financial service providers and their existing customers, one of the things you will need to do is establish innovative business procedures that offer clear and distinct value to customers. The establishment of a profitable financial technology firm is challenging, but it is not impossible.
The following are the steps that need to be taken in order to develop a successful FinTech app and company:
Get an idea.
Confirm that your idea is sound.
Ensure that you have a solid comprehension of the rules and regulations governing the technological business as well as the financial sector.
Determine your niche.
Understand your target audience.
Research your competitors and their operations.
Choose a company that develops websites and mobile applications.
Verify security.
Find a source of funding.
Foster your growth and perfection.
Read also: How to maximise Facebook’s advertising potentials
Get an idea
A fantastic idea is the starting point for every FinTech startup. Take your time and carefully consider how you could bring established financial institutions and banks into disrepute. If you already have a leadership team, brainstorm app and business ideas with them. Just keep in mind that you shouldn’t be too fast to write out any ideas that come up during the brainstorming sessions.
Looking at common issues that other financial organisations struggle to solve is a good method to think of innovative ideas for the FinTech industry, which is why doing so may be quite beneficial. Once you and your team have discovered these trouble spots, you should suggest remedies that will either eliminate them entirely or significantly reduce their severity.
Confirm your idea is sound
When you have a developed idea for a FinTech product, the next step is to determine whether or not it will be successful and whether or not there will be a demand for it in the market. Idea validation may be accomplished through a variety of methods, including research, user surveys, market analysis, and more.
Utilizing Google is the quickest and easiest method for validating the idea that is driving your FinTech firm. Google Keyword Research and Google Trends are two helpful tools that are provided by Google that you may use to validate the idea that you have for an app.
There’s more to Google Keyword Research than just an SEO tool. In addition to this, it can be used to estimate the demand for the product. Using the Google Keyword Research tool, you may do a search for phrases and terms that are associated with the product or service concept you have. The tool will then display the total number of Google searches that are directly connected to the terms that you entered.
Google Trends is a tool that provides you with a graphical illustration of the level of interest that people have in searching for a particular keyword or phrase. You may also use Google Trends to evaluate how popular one term or phrase is in comparison to another term or phrase. You can choose to view interest graphs from 2004 all the way up to the present day, and Google Trends not only graphs the rise and fall of search interest for a specific search over the time period of your choice (you can choose to view interest graphs from 2004 all the way up to the present day), but it also projects search interest into the future.
In addition to these two Google tools, clever FinTech entrepreneurs also use the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store to research which ideas and features are successful with customers and which ones are not.
Check to see if there is a genuine interest among customers in the products or services you intend to offer before beginning the creation of a FinTech app. If the idea that you had doesn’t seem to have a lot of interest, start brainstorming new ideas to validate, think about how you are positioning and branding your app, or think about how you may add more popular features and services.
Have a solid knowledge of regulations
Anyone who is contemplating the launch of a financial technology company ought to be familiar with the legislation that governs the financial sector and the production of technological software products, such as online and mobile applications. The sharing, storing, and transmission of financial data is governed by a number of stringent laws on account of the extreme sensitivity of this information.
When it comes to the rules and regulations that must be followed, various nations adhere to various standards. These restrictions are in place to protect the financial data of businesses as well as individual customers. However, these rules (including privacy laws) do not just apply to the data that is being communicated between different actors in the banking industry or between different organisations that handle payments; they also apply to the data that is being accessed on the web and mobile apps.
For these reasons, FinTech firms need to make sure that any software they make available to the general public, especially when it comes to online and mobile applications, has a very high level of security. In addition, FinTech organisations must encrypt all of the data that is being exchanged, establish two-factor authentication methods for logging into accounts, and continuously monitor systems to avoid and deal with any data hacks.
Determine your niche
The term “financial technology” (often abbreviated as “FinTech”) refers to a wide variety of computer-based products and services that, together or individually, make it easier to handle a person’s or a business’s financial affairs. It is exceedingly difficult for a single firm (especially a startup) to supply every sort of FinTech service to its customers because there are so many financial solutions available to consumers as well as enterprises.
If you are thinking about starting a Finanicial tech company, one key step you should take is to specialise your offerings in a certain sector of the financial industry, such as lending or general banking. In this way, you will be able to concentrate your efforts, both in terms of time and resources, on this specific field and work toward establishing yourself as the industry leader in this specialised field. The following is a list of some of the several types of FinTech specialities that are available to pick from:
General banking
Mobile banking
Personal finance management
Investments and trading
Lending Payment services
Money transfers
Payroll services
Credit reporting and monitoring
Data security
Market research
Cryptocurrency trading app
Currency exchange
Tax services
It is essential to make sure that you deliver something cutting-edge to your customers, regardless of the FinTech services that you now supply for them. If you want your startup to be successful, you don’t have to invent the wheel, but you need make sure that it offers a solution to the problems that users face in a way that has never been attempted before. For example, there is a mobile app that enables drivers of motorbikes and taxis to earn payment from the customers they transport.
In addition to zeroing in on a particular subfield within the FinTech industry, it is beneficial to begin on a modest scale initially. At this stage in the project, you shouldn’t be concerned with providing service on a global scale.
Understand your target audience
The target market for your FinTech firm is an essential factor to consider when deciding what kinds of solutions you will be offering in this space. It is essential to have a solid understanding of the target audience for your marketing efforts, as not everyone will see the value in a certain FinTech product.
Once you have determined who your ideal customers are for your fintech products, you can next build your website and mobile application accordingly. The younger demographic prefers images that are colorful and lively, but the older demographic has a tendency to favor basic information and straightforward app functionality.
Conducting market research on your FinTech service is the most effective method for reducing the size of your ideal user audience.
Research your competitors’ operations
Researching your competition is the next step after figuring out who your target demographic is and what services you offer. Researching your competitors can be quite beneficial to your company as it moves through the process of product creation. In addition, it is very simple to acquire in-depth information regarding your competitors, as well as the apps and services that they offer.
Check out the brand positioning and app design strategies of some of the leading FinTech companies in your region by looking at some of the top FinTech companies in your area. You can gain a deep understanding of what your competitors are doing well and where they are falling short by reading reviews of competitor apps in app stores, visiting company websites, utilizing marketing software, or even just downloading competitor apps for yourself.
This will provide you with a broad understanding of the competition you face as well as the current FinTech trends that your potential clients are looking for.
Researching your competitors can provide you with some very useful information, including what you should not be doing. You can see where your competitors are falling short by reading user reviews, and you can then build solutions to address these gaps in their offerings.
You may also investigate the prices that your rival businesses are charging for their services and search for additional methods to add value for your clients. Researching your competitors can also assist you in reducing the size of the audience you should be targeting, which is useful if you are having trouble doing it on your own.
Choose a company that develops websites, mobile applications
It is equally crucial to choose the correct web and app developers to work on your software in order to ensure that it is at its best and offers a fantastic User Experience (UX). A digital product of exceptional quality is the only thing that can guarantee the success of your startup. Consequently, selecting the most qualified software development team to work for your company is essential to ensuring its continued success.
Every software development business has specific preferences when it comes to its “tech stack,” which refers to the combination of programming languages, frameworks, and databases that are utilized in the production of websites and applications.
Therefore, it is essential to select a development team that has previous experience constructing FinTech apps. This will ensure that they are familiar with the most appropriate technology for your specific product as well as the particular privacy standards that your software will be expected to adhere to.
Before you choose a development partner, you should make sure that they can describe their development process in detail and provide you with examples of previous work on projects that are comparable to the one you are working on. Developing an app requires a large financial investment. You shouldn’t be in a hurry to pick a development team until you are very certain that they will help your company achieve its objectives.
Verify security
Prioritizing safety is an essential step to take before beginning development. It is my sincere hope that you go with a technology business that incorporates security measures into each and every stage of the product development process. If you haven’t already had a conversation with your development partner about privacy and security concerns, you need to make sure that security is a priority from the very beginning of the project.
The biggest concerns driving security in the financial technology business are things like fraud, theft, and blackmail. Make it a point to encrypt all sensitive information that your organization gathers and stores, adhering to the highest possible industry standards for doing so. Testing for app security should be performed at each and every level of the app development process. Not only does this make certain that faults and other flaws are discovered before deployment, but it also helps your company cut expenditures.
The longer it takes to detect and correct an error, the higher the cost of correcting the problem will be. During the time that they are fighting to build a footing in the market, FinTech firms simply cannot afford to waste any financial resources. In the early stages of product development, your firm will save money and have a secure product if you make ensuring users’ safety a top priority and advocate for high standards.
https://techpressionmedia.com/fcmb-wins-excellence-award-at-finnovex-summit/
Find a source of funding
There are a variety of channels available to you through which you can acquire capital for your firm. One option is to “bootstrap,” which is shorthand for “raising all of your own funds without taking money from investors.” ICO (initial coin offering), venture capital, crowdfunding, traditional bank loans, private finance, and other forms of financing are also common and popular forms of financial support.
It’s likely that many FinTech businesses will adopt a variety of fundraising tactics in order to grow their product while simultaneously seeking funding.
Funding is necessary for every startup. You will have to solicit financial support in some way, and it is possible that you will have to do it in several separate phases. When trying to secure finance, having something to show potential investors can be of great assistance. Many fledgling businesses create prototypes or minimum viable products (MVPs) in order to entice additional investment backing.
In spite of the fact that the FinTech business appears to be oversaturated, there is still room for new entrants, provided they can locate a unique problem in a specialized niche and establish its value.
