Poland is becoming a fintech hub
In recent years, Poland has been experiencing a real boom in the fintech sector. The number of companies increased by 79% compared to 2018. Some of them have already achieved their first successes after introducing their offer to foreign markets. The Polish fintech ecosystem, although relatively young, is prepared for further dynamic development and expansion.
Financial Technology, or fintech, is an innovative financial service that operates exclusively online. Their functioning is based on information technology. The term also applies to entities offering the latest solutions for the financial sector. An important caveat right away – contrary to appearances, fintechs do not include only start-ups. The list includes, for example, banks and other large financial market entities.
Probably the most well-known fintech in Poland is Blik. This unique mobile payment system was launched in 2015 and already had 1 million users in the first six months. Currently, there are almost 13 million of them. Over the eight years of its operation, its users have completed almost 2.8 billion transactions worth PLN 371.4 billion (in 2022 alone, it was 1.2 billion operations worth PLN 163.9 billion). In the future, Blik has a chance to become a pan-European payment system. The first countries to which expansion is planned are Slovakia and Romania.
The number of fintechs is growing
Between 2018 and 2022, the number of fintechs in Poland increased from 167 to 299. That’s a jump of 79 percent. The growth was driven by several factors – the general economic situation, the growing demand for financial services using new technologies, a large number of highly qualified experts and graduates of technical universities, the change in consumer behaviour accelerated by the pandemic, as well as the growing pressure to meet ESG standards.
Fintechs in Poland operate in 15 sectors, almost half of which operate in three – payments, financial management and software delivery. These are mostly relatively young entities, less than 5 years old. But key players are starting to build scale and increase market share by offering additional products. As a result, 41% of them already have revenues higher than PLN 10 million. Most of them (39 per cent) employ between 11 and 50 people, and 32 per cent employ no more than 10 people. However, the share of the largest entities employing more than 100 people is growing (already 13 per cent).
Who are the investors behind fintechs in Poland? As many as 6 out of 10 have a Polish individual f among their strategic investors. In the case of 14 per cent of entities, the majority shareholder is a foreign company, and 10 per cent has a Polish company as a strategic investor. On the other hand, domestic or foreign funds are the leading owners of only 13 per cent of fintechs in Poland.
The future of fintechs
The Polish fintech sector is getting stronger and stronger, as shown by high, constantly growing revenues. Increasingly, entities are noticing VC funds debuting on the Polish market, as well as international financial institutions. What’s more, global fintechs are opening their R&D centres or business service centres in Poland.
All this makes us an extremely attractive market for activities in the area of financial innovation, and the aforementioned Blik is just one of the examples. Besides, Poland is the largest financial services market in Central and Eastern Europe. And in the coming years, this fact will have an impact on the entire economy – investments will continue to be attracted, as well as talent for attractive jobs.
The trend of creating strategic partnerships between technology providers and banks is also on the horizon. It is also important that Polish consumers are extremely open to innovation, of which the banking system has been the best example for years.
PAIH supports fintech
A comprehensive approach to the fintech sector can be found in a special report “How to do FinTech in Poland”, whose partner is the Polish Investment and Trade Agency. It is a real compendium of knowledge and a guide for foreign entities interested in the Polish financial market.
It is worth remembering that PAIH supports the process of establishing business relations by Polish entrepreneurs and their expansion abroad.
The material was published in the October issue of the Polish Airlines magazine Lot Kaleidoscope.