The world continues to reel from the double whammy of a health crisis and an economic blow out. But almost in sympathy to the idea ‘never let a crisis go to waste’, Kiwi fintech’s are rearing to dig deeper and continue to forge their own futures.
A recent FintechNZ survey across a broad spectrum of the fintech community in New Zealand highlighted that about 70% are plotting a chart to expand globally. While plans may take longer to execute than normal, given the current economic challenges, the get-up-and-dust-it-off attitude bodes well for New Zealand exports! On that note, just over 60% expect to execute on their global expansion plans in the next three years.
About 40% of the respondents already have a presence overseas with Australia, Asia and the US having relatively larger representations. Looking ahead, Australia continues to be the leading destination, followed by the UK and Singapore.
Based on the feedback received about which support services would be most valuable to the community, the following were the most voted for (out of about 12 items on the wishlist):
- Finding business partners in the overseas jurisdiction
- Connecting to the fintech communities and associations overseas
- Help in researching the target market, and
- Connecting to investors and mentors.
Fortunately, FintechNZ is in a position to facilitate many of the items on the community wish list.
FintechNZ has already been central to enabling a number of overseas trade missions over the past few years and has established well-entrenched networks across fintech hotspots around the globe. With the ability to tap into and provide introductions to a local membership base of about 175-strong, FintechNZ can also leverage its ability to look across the community and connect businesses for mutual benefit as well.
The survey feedback was representative of the broader Kiwi fintech community with about 40% of respondents from businesses with less than five staff, 20% from those with between five and 20 staff and about 20% with over 100 staff.
The International Relations Working Group of FintechNZ, who conducted the survey will be charting out a course for members to access a toolkit to help execute their overseas expansion plans, over the coming weeks.
