As 2023 winds into its final few months and 2024 dawns, banks may be on the prowl for acquisitions.
And according to Charlie Youakim, CEO of Sezzle, FinTechs may be in the crosshairs — a select few of them anyway, as he told Karen Webster.
It’s not news, he said, that banks and FinTechs, once enemies, are collaborating and have struck partnerships with increasing frequency over the years. The year 2023 has been a bit of a speed bump, as the cost of capital has increased, and new FinTech formation has lagged amid headwinds in the VC and private equity space. But the long-term trend of banks and FinTechs working together remains intact.
That’s led to a familiarity on the part of banks with these digital-only upstarts, and a better sense of how they can contribute to the banks’ own technological roadmaps and evolution amid the great digital shift.