Australia is primed for fintech boom — embedded finance experience to lead the “blitz”
Australia has had the unfortunate label of being “a little behind” in tech However, I believe that all that is about to change for the better.
It was recently reported by the Australian Financial Review, that a $1bn investment fund has been launched in the run-up to the election, together with a tertiary training-based tech skills pledge to add 340,000 additional tech-related jobs into the Australian market by the end of the decade. This signifies that the country’s dream of becoming a “technology nation” could become a reality. As of May 2022, Australia has about 850 active fintechs, who between them earn $4bn in revenue a year, according to data from EY.
Increasing demand for embedded finance experiences
Australian consumers’ desire for a wholesome and holistic experience has grown exponentially over the last five years — it even accelerated since the start of the pandemic as businesses were “forced” to provide all things “digital.”
As all companies look for ways to enrich the finance experience of consumers, customer experience is at the heart of the finance evolution. Changes in the financial sector, including the focus on relationships, revenues, relevance and even rewards, are being driven largely by technology-savvy businesses and consumers expecting a full digital experience.
With finance being the point of commonality between businesses and consumers, the landscape has continued to evolve to support seamless embedded finance experience and positive disruption — to meet the ever-changing and expectation-filled needs of consumers. Fintechs play an extremely critical role as compared to the traditional, old finance players. They have the nimbleness, flexibility and tech capability to create consumer end-to-end solutions, allowing themselves and their partners to quickly adapt to the shift in increased digital consumption and providing a more secure cyber environment.
While fintechs play an important role in enabling traditional businesses in adoption of new financial products and services, to better respond to consumers’ needs, and to create a seamless, streamlined finance experience to respond to this demand, fintechs are way more than that.
Fintech is really about deploying financial technology that will inevitably make the world a more efficient and inclusive place — helping consumers and businesses to manage their finance, ensuring smaller businesses have better access to financial products and services, and also encouraging ‘green finance’.,And if we take one step further, fintechs are critical in ensuring that the world we live in is simply a better one.
The Meteoric Rise of Embedded finance in Australia
According to the Q4 2021 Embedded Finance Survey, the embedded finance industry in Australia is expected to grow by 46.4% on an annual basis to reach US$3.9bnin 2022. The embedded finance industry is expected to grow steadily over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 29.4% during 2022–2029. And by 2029, it will have rocketed to in 2022 to reach nearly US$16bn by 2029.
This shows that while embedded finance is a new trend in Australia, it is gaining traction at a significant pace. This is because embedded finance sits at the heart of solutions such as Banking-as-a-Service and Cards-as-a-Service. Whereby businesses and consumers alike have become very used to the “invisibility” of modular banking stacks where they can simply ‘plug in and play’, Railsr’s turnkey solution enables companies, including fintechs to embed finance swiftly and seamlessly into every consumer journey, wherever it creates the most impact.
Leading the “blitz”
The increased focus of embedded finance experience worldwide, are clear opportunities for the fintech sector in Australia as companies seek to build a better customer experience.
Data and insights have shown that embedded finance experiences are set to be the real game-changer for businesses, including fintechs in Australia. Fintech innovation and adoption is driving growth as there is an increase in usage of APIs in financial services and building of the ecosystem. Embedded finance is the present and the future of finance — running on our global embedded finance experience platform which helps our customers drive revenue, relationships, relevance and even rewards.
This means that fintechs in Australia can focus on innovating, prototyping and launching amazing new fintech ideas while we focus on the rest. Even for fintechs that have already built a great business with a proven product, the risk can be taken out to spur growth and extension of new offerings. At the end of the day, we are here to inspire, enable and support fintechs through every step of the journey, embedding finance experience, engaging consumers and transforming lives in Australia. Visit our website to find out more.
