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Key Takeaways Fintech’s growth is moving beyond Silicon Valley. New markets have emerged and are growing because financial inefficiency is still a daily reality, and tech provides immediate relief.
From Latin America to Africa and Southeast Asia, fintechs are thriving by solving structural inefficiencies, leveraging AI and scaling faster in underbanked markets.
Investors who understand the local context, study the interaction between regulation and technology and enter these markets early will gain a competitive advantage.
For more than a decade, Silicon Valley shaped the global fintech narrative. It produced the earliest neobanks, pioneered embedded payments and created the infrastructure layers that modern financial platforms still rely on.
But over the last five years, new markets have emerged and are attracting considerable attention. Yes, Silicon Valley remains the center of gravity, but the slowdown in breakthrough innovation, combined with rising operational costs and tighter competition for engineering talent, has prompted many investors to widen their field of view. At the same time, fintech ecosystems across Europe, Latin America, MENA and Southeast Asia have accelerated rapidly.
These markets are not growing because they want the latest trend. They are growing because financial inefficiency is still a daily reality, and technology provides immediate relief.
Related: 4 Emerging Tech Hubs That Are Challenging Silicon Valley’s Dominance
Emerging and frontier regions are producing high-growth fintechs solving local pain points
In the regions where we are most active as investors, the pattern is consistent. High-friction environments produce high-growth fintech companies.
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