Survey: 89% of businesses never heard of “fintech”
It's bad news for fintech startups...
A new study from "Find-a-Tradie" site ServiceSeeking.com.au has found that 89% of trades and service providers don't know what "fintech" is.
Fintech, which refers to financial technology, has become increasingly prevalent in the small business space. It has also filled funding gaps left by larger banks and created new platforms and products for SMEs. However, it appears "fintech" lacks awareness in the broader business community.
“Fintech has a long way to go to achieve widespread adoption and the banks seem fairly well entrenched across the spectrum of financial products,” says ServiceSeeking.com.au CEO Jeremy Levitt. “An overwhelming majority of these SMEs have never even heard of the industry.”
However, the argument could be made that while the small businesses surveyed don't know what fintech is, they may have benefited from it. The term fintech may largely remain industry-speak and businesses may just refer to companies within the space as lenders, financiers or simply alternatives to the larger banks.
While the ServiceSeeking.com.au survey did find 79% had never obtained financing outside of the big banks, this may differ by industry. The survey data comes from over 700 SMEs "registered to quote jobs" through the platform, which will mean it is mostly comprised of those in the service and trade industry.
Analysis by finder.com.au in mid-2016 found that the Big Four had lost some business loans market share. Survey data released in February 2016 by eBroker found that fintech lenders were receiving more than $1.1 billion in loan applications per month.
While no more recent stats have been made available, new small business lenders continue to enter the market.
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