Fintech is evolving fast. As the sector continues to reshape how financial services are built and delivered, explore the latest trends and data from our 2025 report to discover what’s next.

After nearly two decades of rapid digital transformation and vertical disruption across banking, payments, lending, and wealth, clear category leaders have emerged, with some of these challengers having scaled with enduring velocity, reshaping customer expectations and acquiring material market share. Others, though innovative, have remained on the periphery – impactful but limited in scale.

As the first wave of vertical fintech disruptors matures, many are expanding horizontally to unlock new revenue streams and improve profitability. This convergence is intensifying competition, compressing margins, and in some cases, complicating exit paths – paralleling the platform wars and eventual consolidation seen in last decade’s AdTech cycle, where value accrued to those with direct user relationships and data moats.

At the same time, new tailwinds are emerging as the foundation laid by API proliferation, Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), and AI breakthroughs enabling a second wave of fintech transformation. This next phase is defined by the rise of embedded finance – where financial services are seamlessly integrated into non-financial platforms. From commerce and mobility to SaaS and creator platforms, embedded financial tools coupled with AI-native financial capabilities promise to lower acquisition and servicing costs, unlock novel monetization opportunities, and enable new classes of autonomous uber-efficient financial products.

With lower cost-to-serve and reduced customer friction, advancing hyper-personalization delivered through full-stack capabilities and increasing demand for contextual financial experiences delivered at the point of need, fintech embraces the emerging opportunities for massive global reach through the conflicting combination of Super Apps and embedded ecosystems, each powered by evermore intelligent infrastructure – marking the strategic inflection for the sector.

A renewed IPO pipeline – highlighted by the successful public listing of eToro and potential debuts for Chime and Circle – signals early signs of a reawakening in venture-backed liquidity to help feed this new cycle. As this next cycle begins, winners will be those who combine scalable infrastructure, proprietary data access, and AI-driven operating leverage.

Horizontal convergence has triggered a platform battle: As key fintech players with vertical financial service offerings grow and expand, the services continue to expand into one another creating increased competition and the opportunity for single solution providers.

Consolidation as a defensive strategy: Where fintech startups have gained meaningful share – such as in business payments and asset management – incumbents have responded by consolidating with peers rather than acquiring disruptors. This signals a shift in strategy as traditional players fight to defend market position amid platform competition.

Emergence of embedded finance: With the maturation of APIs and BaaS infrastructure, the expanded opportunity for embedded financial services offering, by both financial and non-financial companies, is opening the door for massive disruption and potential ecosystem shifting partnerships for incumbent financial services companies.

AI as a defining force for the next wave: As the next broader technological wave of AI opens new customer opportunities, the financial services industry will find unique ways to both improve operating margins and to leverage data into new customer experiences, creating a paradigm shift in the way consumers and businesses engage with the market for their financial needs.

Resurgence of fintech liquidity: Consolidation within and outside of the financial services industry will push some to the public markets to leverage a public currency and lower cost of capital while others seek acquisition by larger balance-sheet partners to compete in the next fintech wave that promises to further shakeup the status quo.