Recap: Apps Alliance Paris Meetup, Mobile FinTech Apps

On 24 March, the App Alliance kicked off the 2016 Paris Meetup Series with a focus on Mobile FinTech Apps. The event included a panel with experts from FinTech companies including Nicolas Martin, CPO at Bankin’, Antoine Porte, Co-Founder and CTO at Lydia, Hugo Bailey, Product Manager at Mangopay and Jehan de Castet, Founder and CEO, Fluo. The Parisian tech community gathered to learn more about the latest trends in the growing FinTech sector. 

Also: Check Out Our Next App Strategy Workshop in Paris on 28 April!

You Don’t Need a Financial Background

All panelists agreed that in order to create a successful FinTech app, a financial background is not essential. None of the speakers had previous experience in the financial industry, nor did they have team members coming from that sector. Jehan de Castet, Founder and CEO of Fluo said that it is more important for FinTech app publishers to focus on the quality, service and experience provided by the app. The other panelists shared this point of view. 

The Importance of Consumer Trust

When it comes to Fintech apps, trust is a critical factor. For Bankin’, App Store Optimization (ASO) is a key way to generate trust, specially through positive reviews and ratings. The app should be built in a way to encourage these. For Lydia, repeating the word “trust” across the user journey, and the importance of a seamless user journey is crucial. The goal is to create a “WOW effect”, which then increases word-of-mouth marketing and app installs.

Product Market Fit & User Acquisition

For Bankin’ launched the app in 2012 at the beginning of this now booming FinTech market. The company knew the product market fit was reached when the servers couldn’t sustain the amount of traffic to their app. Nicolas Martin, CPO of Bankin’ pointed the importance of always finding the “next product market fit”. The market is always evolving and it is important to always create and re-invent a new product in order to stay relevant and deliver the service. When it comes to acquiring users, until you have a good product, you are throwing money out of the window by paying for ads and other ways to drive app installs.

Let’s Talk APIs

All the panelists had a different approach to APIs. Fluo found that they could add more value to other players especially from the travel industry by providing access to the service. Mangopay was created following the success of Leetchi, the peer-to-peer money-pooling app, as an opportunity to expand an already successful business. Bankin’ shared their APIs helping other player to have access to bank information.

The Impact of Regulation

There are some important regulations coming from the EU such as DSP 2. Lydia and Bankin’ spend a lot of time in Brussels and London, lobbying in order to co-write regulation. An association called France FinTech has been created in order to help FinTech startupsbe heard when it comes to regulation. Regulations were not as important for Fluo, as the insurance industry is not as heavily regulated. 

Antoine Porte, Co-Founder and CTO at Lydia pointed out that security and compliance are even more important for payment apps. It is extremely important to introduce your employees to security and anti-money laundering measures. After a certain level, you need to have someone full time to take care of compliance, as those requirements are very time consuming for founders and tech entrepreneurs.

The Future of FinTech

Nicolas from Bankin’ believes in the “hybrid model”, where established banks collaborate very closely with FinTech startups. For example, Mangopay/Leetchi recently got acquired by Arkea.

Antoine from Lydia believes in the new paradigm brought about by the app economy, where successful products are the ones that focus on one very specific problem, which they solve very well.

Want to Know More about FinTech?

Check out our FinTech Papers, in which the Application Developers Alliance spoke with industry experts across a range of disciplines from the legal side, innovative incubator programmes and some of the brightest FinTech entrepreneurs themselves to bring you crucial insights on three main topics: Raising Finance, Impact of Regulation and Disruption to Banking.  

Watch the Panel Video

If you are a French speaker – don’t miss to watch the video from the panel.

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