How the developing world is shaking up tech from Mexico to Chile and Kenya

In New York with Wondereur for Fintech Finals

Fintech early stage companies were part of my company's Global Fintech challenge last year which I got to roll out and manage across Canada. What was surprising to our head office was the sheer number of good fintechs in Canada, not just Silicon Valley. That is what struck me as I read this article about how Silicon Valley and Canada are no longer the only place where fintechs are growing - Mexico with its lack of banking is shooting ahead with Fintechs too.

The magazine Unlimited has an interesting article on technological development outside of Silicon Valley and how fintech in the developing world is gaining traction.

I had been surprised last year, when the head of Blockchain in my company told me how Africa had played a huge role in developing blockchain as there were so few legacy banking systems in place. There you have it, straight from the horse's mouth about blockchain and developing countries technology sectors.

Here's the article...

Today earbuds can translate foreign languages in real time, while scientists are developing ‘living’ solar panels that can be printed on paper. Meanwhile, tech pioneers are setting their sights on still grander goals, like enhancing the human brain with implants raising the possibility of telepathic communication.

The pace of change in the sector continues to accelerate. In the US alone, the number of tech-related patents has doubled over the past decade.But, while expertise has been concentrated around California’s Silicon Valley, in the coming years technological disruption is increasingly likely to blossom in the developing world. Emerging markets are already undergoing a radical transformation. A decade ago the tech industry accounted for only 10% of the benchmark MSCI Emerging Markets index. Now that figure has nearly tripled to 29%, with four of the index’s five largest-capitalized companies coming from the tech sector. 

In China, the education system currently produces three million science and engineering graduates each year – five times that of the US – and the nation is already on the way to joining the long-standing tech leaders, Taiwan and Korea.In neighbouring India, already a global player in the IT services industry, the government now has the world’s largest biometric identification system, with fingerprints and iris scans of more than one billion residents. 

Yet, the technological shift is not being limited to Asia. Coordinated public and private efforts to foster tech start-ups in Chile have earned the country the “Chilecon Valley” moniker, drawing comparisons with the famous California innovation hub.Mexico has also made progress in promoting start-ups through the creation of the National Institute of Entrepreneurship, with similar programs running in Colombia and Peru, now beginning to trigger rapid start-up growth in cities like Bogotá, Medellín and Lima.Given the large population in Latin America who are without banking services, a key growth area is fintech. According to Finnovista, the number of fintech start-ups in the region recently surpassed 1,000.

Read the full article here.

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