Image Source: Wharton Website
One of the rapidly evolving tech innovations in payment systems is Financial Technology – Fintech. This is the future of virtual payments and it is gradually taking over. Recently, there have been major investments in Africa’s Fintech space. In the last 12 months, 30% of all capital investments were in Fintech Start-ups.
The need for African enterprises to come up to speed with Fintech cannot be over emphasised. Financial institutions may soon give up their traditional methods for more technologically advanced ones. Ignoring the recent impact of Fintech start-ups on payments and traditional banking could have huge implications in the future.
African start-ups are faced with an ever-evolving marketplace where trends and technology continue to advance rapidly. It is important for start-ups to adapt to a changing marketplace, put strategies in place to enable them adapt and manage various technological innovations.
In order to remain adaptable to changes in the tech environment, there is a need to develop a culture of innovation that allows experimentation. Top management need to become comfortable with and be willing to take risks for radical change. It is important to be ready to create room and structures for collaboration where necessary.
There are four operational attributes that could drive innovation. The first is to emphasize on speed. The second is the need to make use of current, appropriate and efficient tech platforms such as cloud, big data and so on. The third is to try to maintain a lean Research and Development (R&D) budget and finally, systematic exploration of adjacent markets. A widely acknowledged fact about innovation that start-up managers need to keep at the back of their minds is that radical innovation is definitely challenging but subtly rewarding. Additionally, today’s entrepreneurs must spearhead innovation.
Hence, as a start-up company that would stand the test of time, you need to acknowledge the recent technological developments in this area and the possible impact it could have on your business.
