“Fintech Goes Global”: The emergence of a borderless industry - another success for the third edition of HEC Paris’ Fintech Talent Fair

According to Philippe Limantour, Chief Innovation Officer at EY, fintechs are organizations that combine innovative business models and technology to enable, enhance and disrupt financial services. The term, which first appeared at the end of the 90s, is now a top trend in the finance industry, with lots of investments currently being made in new fintech startups and organizations.

HEC Paris believes that fintech is shaping the future of the digital and finance industries. This is why, since 2015, the school has been organizing the Fintech Talent Fair  - an event covering the latest trends in the fintech industry and aiming at helping connect fintech startups and representatives of fintech ecosystems from all over the world with established players in the European banking ecosystem and HEC Paris students and alumni. This year’s edition of the Fintech Talent Fair took place at the HEC Paris campus on November 23rd.

Several speakers from some of Europe’s leading fintech companies covered the following topics: In a world where fintech is increasingly globalised, how do successful fintechs become successful across borders? What is the recipe for success for the various fintech ecosystems?

Jean Rémy Gratadour, Executive Director of HEC Paris’ digital center, opened the conference with a speech on the importance of fintech for HEC Paris and on how the school is becoming more innovative in its teaching methods with new programs in finance, entrepreneurship or data science such as the X-HEC MSc Data Science for Business program. His speech was followed by an introduction on fintech ecosystems by Philippe Limantour, Chief Innovation Officer at EY and two panels on “developments in fintech ecosystems”’ and “cross-border businesses and expansion strategies”. In between the two panels, Marieke Flament, Managing Director in Europe of the Circle app - the event’s main sponsor - gave a keynote speech on how Blockchain, P2P and social payments are shaping the way we’ll use money in the future.

The event ended with three speed networking workshops, allowing present companies to meet directly with HEC Paris students and to introduce their companies to them in hope of recruiting some of the school’s best talents.