There are only 3 days left of the year. 2022 has not been an easy year for fintechs and startups. We saw a lot of things happen.
After a 2021 with an immense appetite for risk, 2022 was marked by investors pulling back from bolder investments, leading to mass layoffs within fintechs and startups.
I closely followed many cases, many layoffs. All this led to a real internal restructuring within these companies.
However, with the arrival of a new year, new questions come to our minds: will 2023 see a recovery of investments in startups?
A promising second semester
In my view, the year 2023 will still have a slightly more difficult first half of the year, with many investors still investing their money in less risky assets.
After all, the interest rate is still favourable for safe investments and due to inflation, there will hardly be a much higher risk than now.
Because of this, I believe that the first half of next year will follow the same dynamics that we are seeing today: retraction in investments.
However, I believe that from the second half on we will see a recovery in investments and better prepared projects should already benefit from it.
The change in the trajectory of interest rate increases
If all goes well, I believe that in the last months of the first semester of 2023 we will already see a change in the trajectory of the interest rate increase policy.
Therefore, what should happen from then on is that central banks should stop with the increases and in the last quarter of this year start the fall with a more controlled inflation.
Therefore, at the very beginning of the second half of the year, it is expected that investors will start looking at some projects with a slightly higher appetite for risk, although lower than in 2021.
Increased focus on planning and management
In view of the macroeconomic considerations, what I believe for 2023 is that the focus of investors will be on startups and fintechs that have well-designed strategic planning and a more efficient management capacity.
It is the moment for fintechs to create profit-oriented management models, be it short, medium or long term. What matters is that the business is not a bet in the dark.
As the economy is cyclical, the time will come when the appetite will come back again, and not so good fintechs will catch the attention of investors. However, until then, those who are not efficient are unlikely to attract investment from large groups.
On the one hand this is good, as it will require these modern companies to have an even more refined management knowledge, and will prepare them to take even higher flights.
