Bogota hosted the FinTech Unconference Colombia 2023 on April 13. It is a private and exclusive meeting by invitation that brought together the main players in the financial and insurance sector of the countryincluding banks, insurers, investors, associations and authorities, together with representatives of the fintech and insurtech industry.
The initiative, jointly organized by Invest in Bogotá, the investment promotion agency for Bogotá, finnovatingand Madrid Investment Attraction (MIA), the Madrid City Council’s investment and talent attraction area, aims to promote innovation in the financial and insurance sector of both countries, in collaboration with the top 120 fintech companies, as well as representatives of Asobancaria, Colombia FinTech, Women in FinTech (MeF), as well as other Colombian and Spanish public institutions.
The meeting offered working groups and collaborative debates focused on identifying opportunities in emerging technologies, regulation and disruptive models, as well as analyzing the interaction between banking and insurance with the fintech and insurtech industry. Six workshops were held on relevant topics, such as the impact of the Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT in the fintech sector, the transition from cryptocurrencies to state digital currencies, identity verification in the new financial sector, new cybersecurity risks, the digitalization and internationalization of companies, and the collaboration between fintech and corporations.
In addition, trends in venture capital after the case will be discussed Silicon Valley Bank and the new Open Banking in the context of Embedded Financeallowing attendees to be aware of the latest developments in the sector.
During the meeting, the program of Madrid Investment Attraction soft-landing, designed to attract innovative fintech companies and offer them free guidance and facilities for their implementation in the city’s technological ecosystem. In its first year, the program has made it possible to identify more than 500 foreign fintechs interested in establishing themselves in the capital of Spain. Thus, Madrid It has established itself as one of the main gateways for fintech talent in Europe and one of the main destinations for global fintech companies.
Lastly, during the Unconference, the best fintech and collaboration initiatives of the year will be awarded, in addition to awarding the prize to the fintech woman of the year.
Situation of the sector in Colombia
In addition, Colombia has a total of 642 active fintechsa figure that places the country in the top 3 in the industry for LATAM, ahead of Argentina and Chile, which make up the Top 5 along with Brazil and Mexico, according to the latest FinTech Global Vision 2023 report by Finnovating, which also revealed that Latin America , with more than 3,000 fintechs, has established itself in 2022 as one of the hubs with the greatest projection in the world, especially in B2C services.
“We want to give global visibility to fintechs in Colombia to make it easier for them to accelerate their acquisition of investment, clients and strategic partners. In addition, through the soft-landing program that we have developed in collaboration with MIA, we hope to also help them to better understand the functioning of the local ecosystem of a city like Madrid, where they can establish themselves and promote their talent”. said Rodrigo García de la Cruz, CEO of Finnovating.
