Financial technology, or Fintech, is the wave of the future, but it’s also very much a part of the present. Fintech combines finance and technology to make many tasks easier, less cumbersome, and faster. Most millennials are in the workforce and highly adept online and digitally – that’s 84 million people with an expected $7 trillion in liquid assets by 2020. We are only three years away from this reality, so if you’re not current on financial technology, it’s time to get comfortable with it.

Mobile banking has been around and expanding for a couple of years. Most banks offer it in some form, but it’s not just banks: Paypal has been doing it for more than a decade in a basic form and has been steadily adding options. According to a recent survey, nearly 75% of Millenials use mobile banking apps, and over 70% of them also look forward to new financial services arriving through Google, Apple, Square, and Amazon, as well as others- these are not banks, but offer banking and fintech services along with Paypal.

However, fintech is much more than banking apps and online services. It also includes crowdfunding in general, real estate crowdfunding, investment apps, apps, used by crowdfunding companies such as GoFundMe, financial comparison apps – helping people find the best fit for lenders or other financial services, and more.

Fintech Apps

As of mid-2015, nearly $2.3 billion has been raised for fintech startups that target Millennials, but will be available to all users, some of these include Level Money, a money management and budgeting platform acquired by Capital One; Acorns, an investment platform; Osper, mobile banking and prepaid debit card; iBillionaire, strategies and investment data on trends from billionaire investors; StockTwits, a social network for traders and investors; Moven, a personal money coach and debit card; Robinhoo, a stock trading service; as well as Venmo, a digital wallet for payments and remittances acquired by Braintree. This list is just a taste of the diversity of fintech offerings. I addition to that, in the first quarter of 2016 nearly $5 billion was raised to finance some of the largest fintech app deals, There’s no end in sight to the possibilities.
The great thing is that apps address a variety of user needs – investing, banking, and finances are all made easy with apps that help users track, learn, and process what they want to do. In addition to those above, at least 22 fintech apps are being developed to specifically interact with Tesco Bank, a retail bank;
Scutify, an investors and traders social network; Apple Watch; Prism, a bill pay and money management platform; and Yoyo Wallet for making payments through digital wallet. Those don’t even include the many fintech apps being developed or improved by companies all around the world. And of course, almost every mobile fintech app is working to support the Apple Watch.

Fintech’s Following

Current estimates are that almost one-quarter of Millennials do not carry cash. Instead, they use smartwatches, credit cards and mobile apps as a means of paying for what they purchase.

Financial technology makes life easier, simpler, and even faster; that’s the real beauty of these apps. In a time when people start tapping their toes after just a few seconds of waiting because they’re thinking about all the things on a never-ending to-do list, fintech allows people to skip most of the trips to storefronts and simply use their laptops and phones.

Real Estate Crowdfunding through Financial Technology

Fintech apps offering specific services such as real estate crowdfunding are cutting-edge, but no longer something of the future — they are here and should be investigated by savvy investors and entrepreneurs.

Save Time and Invest with FinTech

You’ve probably already got financial technology apps that you use on your mobile phone or the internet, but you should be looking for more apps to use as ways to save time, increase efficiency, and open up new horizons for managing and investing your money. Entrepreneurs should always look for ways to join future trends in early stages of development. Discovering more fintech apps, such as the real estate crowdfunding app from sharestates.com, is one way to do just that.