The Rutter team got the chance to attend the Fintech Nexus USA (FKA LendIt 2022) conference at the end of May which brought together thousands of operators, founders and companies in the fintech space to New York. The attendees included a wide range of fintech operators,  from lending to crypto to payroll APIs to identify verification, each sub fintech category was well represented.

Below are some of our team’s takeaways and learning from the 2 day conference.

1. We’re in the early days of the digitization of banking - Our team had several conversations at LendIt with more traditional financial services players who were interested in learning more about the latest in fintech, what an API was and what trends we were seeing in the space. It became very clear that we’re still in the early days of digital banking and despite the explosion of neobanks the last few years, the bigger more entrenched players are all still figuring out their digital strategy and how they can leverage the latest advancements in fintech whether it’s the latest identify verification platform or universal API for alternative data.
2. Alternative data sources in financial services have never been easier to access - Whether it was the number of API companies in attendance or the panelists talking about using various types of data to drive underwriting and real time predictions, it was very evident that big data has entered the world of financial services and it’s here to stay. Beyond bigger more established players like Plaid, some of the API companies that made a big splash in this event were Pinwheel, Argyle, Alloy to name a few. At the same time, this explosion of data has created a new category of companies focused on standardizing and categorizing this data including players like Ocrolus and Heron Data. At Rutter, we’re excited to be powering the future of commerce data and are investing a lot in building the infrastructure for commerce data.
3. Embedded Fintech is on the rise - Another major theme walking around the exhibitors area and sitting in on the various talks was all the startups providing various embedded fintech services ranging from Treasury Prime providing embedded banking to Lendflow making it easier for businesses to become lenders themselves via embedded lending. As a16z famously coined in their blogpost, ‘every company will be a fintech company’ and embedded fintech is a big driver of that.
4. The Small Business is looking more and more like a consumer and vice versa - It was exciting to see the dual activity and interest in both SMB and consumer fintech and lending, and the learnings that were being shared across attendees focused on each sub sector. Some of our takeaways include: consumer underwriting is only beginning to change and has been slower to adopt technology when compared to SMB underwriting while on the flip side, SMB fintech has a lot to learn from consumer fintech on the importance of a great user experience and making it as frictionless as possible for SMBs to access financing. At Rutter, we work with some of the most innovative SMB lending and financing companies like Uncapped, Wayflyer and more.
5. The fintech community is a fast growing and very tight community - Despite each sub category in fintech being well represented by several competitive startups, the vibe we got at Fintech Nexus USA was a very friendly one where everyone was there to learn, find ways to partner and do business with other companies. Our team at Rutter is excited to find ways to partner with fintech companies serving SMBs or merchants and can’t wait to continue the conversation around fintech!

Fintech Nexus USA was a great way for our team to connect with the fintech community and we’re excited to continue the momentum! If you’re interested in working with us or finding ways to partner, reach out here.