Fintech start-ups seek partnerships with Apple and Facebook



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Large technology companies like Apple and Facebook are embarking on the global payments market – and new financial technology companies (fintech) want to be part of the action.

At the Money20 / 20 Europe conference in Amsterdam on Monday, fintech companies positioned themselves as attractive partners and possible buyout targets for industry giants seeking a slice of the global payments market. Raising to billions of dollars.

"The big techs have always competed to become part owners of the financial services chain," said Rishi Khosla, co-founder and CEO of OakNorth, a British digital bank worth $ 2.8 billion. earlier in the evening. year. Khosla added that OakNorth is "in dialogue" with some high-tech companies about potential partnerships, but does not specify which ones by name.

In March, Apple unveiled its own credit card, badociated with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard. Then, in April, Uber got a $ 500 million investment from PayPal in anticipation of its IPO. At the same time, Facebook would be looking for partners to develop its own cryptocurrency.

Fintech CEOs told CNBC in Amsterdam that leading technology companies are well positioned to appeal to users with their already gigantic platforms. But that alone will not guarantee their success in payments or banking, they added.

"We believe in the future, whether it's the Facebook bank, the Amazon bank or the Google bank, they will have to tap this existing infrastructure," said Jason Gardner, CEO of Marqeta, a processor of payments based in the United States. "Sort out and replace somehow that would be incredibly difficult."

Gardner said Marqeta, which reached a valuation of $ 2 billion last month, sees itself as the "engine room" by supplying "piping" to technology companies like Instacart and Square for payment processing. He pointed out that a wave of transactions had already taken place this year among payment companies, thanks to the disruption caused by the new fintech players. Last week, Global Payments and Total System Services agreed on a multimillion dollar merger. In March, the fintech group Fidelity National Information Services announced plans to buy Worldpay for approximately $ 35 billion.

Some CEOs said they expect more consolidation as technology companies grow in the sector. Michael Kent, CEO of the UK start-up payment company, Azimo, said his company was "frequently approached" by companies seeking to strengthen their payment capabilities.

"Especially in payments, the balance is important," he said. "I think this will have a considerable effect on the entire payments industry."

Kent added that large technology companies may choose to develop all technologies in-house.

"They can do it all themselves, they have the networks, they have the customer base to do it, but I think for the next four or five years they're starting to spin the wheels on what's probably the the most exciting sector in the world, you will see a lot of news about partnerships, "he said.

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