Innovation in Spain: Profiles of Spanish Financial Services Tech Startups

With the proliferation of products and services offered by financial services institutions, the potential for disruption is growing exponentially every year. Financial institutions have historically taken a “wait and see” approach to new technology, but this is beginning to change.

In the report Innovation in Spain: Profiles of Spanish Financial Services Tech Startups, Celent profiles some of the innovation from startups that are headquartered or originated in Spain. Not all are applicable only to the country, and parallels are drawn to other countries around the globe.

Celent analysts are regulars at events like Finovate, Innotribe, and Next Bank, writing accompanying reports on the showcased startups. Each year, Celent notices an increase in the number of financial services attendees. Interest in innovation is assuredly increasing.

Financial services startups are perhaps the most talked about and exciting topic for bankers today. Market entrants are threatening to eat the lunch of traditional institutions, and the industry is beginning to realize the importance of innovation. Companies like PayPal and Square are the poster children for this disruption, and the acquisition of companies like Simple by BBVA signals a shift in how financial institutions view these companies.

The disruption of traditional financial services is a global phenomenon, with financial services tech startups filling the gaps where traditional services have failed to keep up with evolving needs. With this in mind, Celent has partnered with the financial firm Finnovista to profile a number of innovative and disruptive startups in the Spanish market. Finnovista is a network of financial services professionals, fintech entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists. Its goal is to facilitate collaboration in the financial services industry through networking events, open innovation advisory, and startup competitions. Celent and Finnovista have been working together to provide some global context around the innovation happening in the financial services sector.

“Banks are increasingly at odds with their own inertia, and are slowly realizing that competition in the new age of customer-centricity requires a strategy that is more in line with evolving demand,” says Stephen Greer, Analyst with Celent’s Banking Group and author of the report. “As time goes on, the challenges of the banking industry are looking more like those of Silicon Valley rather than those of the brick-and-mortar institutions that the industry has grown to embody.”