State of Fintech 2026

Hey!

As the year comes to an end, it felt like the right time to take a step back and reflect on what happened. For me, there was no better way to do that than helping Simon Taylor with the State of Fintech 2026 report.

I won’t steal Simon’s thunder - please do read his introduction to the report - but here are a few takes from my side.

2025 was a difficult year for public Fintech companies. The TWIF Index badly underperformed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. Incumbents like FICO, Fiserv, FIS, and Global Payments struggled, and pulled the index down with them.

In the meantime, we saw incredible product velocity from Robinhood, Coinbase, Revolut, Stripe, and Shopify. For years, Fintech companies leaned heavily on the “finance” part of the word. This year, the “technology” finally took center stage.

Lastly, stablecoins became a thing, and blockchains are finally being put to work on what I believe was the original thesis: rebuilding financial infrastructure. For someone who’s seen TradFi rails under the hood, it brings a lot of hope.

If I try to put these three observations together, I would conclude that 2025 was the year investors began questioning whether the companies that defined the previous decade would make it through the next one, and began placing new bets.

The pace of innovation is accelerating, and scale is no longer a moat if you can’t innovate as fast as your smaller competitors. Those smaller competitors will grow up faster than you expect. Just look at Stripe and Adyen.

Please check out the full report and share it with friends and colleagues.

Thank you for reading, and wishing you an amazing 2026!

Jevgenijs
p.s. if you have feedback, just reply to this email or ping me on X/Twitter

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are my own and do not represent the views of my employer. The information contained in this newsletter is intended for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. You should do your own research or seek professional advice before making any investment decisions. Read the full disclaimer here.