July 28, 2021/CSL Research

PiggyVest, a financial technology (FINTECH) platform announced on Tuesday, the acquisition of Savi.ng, a wealth management app launched in 2018 that allows users to save through various features like automated savings, fixed deposits, joint savings, and PAYE. The acquisition is expected to help PiggyVest play a bigger role in wealth management, a growing segment of the FINTECH industry. According to PiggyVest, this announcement is one in a long list of announcements, improvements and updates from the company in 2021. The company also noted that it had a stellar performance in 2020, despite the pandemic and expects a better performance in 2021.

FINTECH firms are filling the gap between financial services companies and customers by disrupting key financial services segments – digital payments (Paytech), digital insurance (Insurtech), banking (BancTec), wealth management services (Wealthtech), and regulations (Regtech) – and creating space for selling financial products. Big technology firms such as Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Alibaba have also entered the financial services space, enhancing innovation and competition.

According to CB Insights, Q2 2021 was the largest funding quarter on record. Across 657 deals, global Venture Cash-backed FINTECH companies raised a record US$30.8bn in Q2 2021, 30% growth over Q1 funding record. This impressive funding growth was accompanied by a modest 2% deal growth quarter-over-quarter and a 29% increase y/y. Funding activity grew in nearly all FINTECH sectors except for wealth tech and capital markets tech. The digital lending, banking, and SMB FINTECH sectors saw the most pronounced deal activity growth quarter on quarter.

Nigeria’s FINTECH industry continues to evolve on the back of technological advancement and demographic support as about half of the population is less than 25 years of age. Besides, the prevailing financial exclusion has resulted in low access to complex financial products for the masses. Nigeria’s FINTECH landscape consists of about 210-250 FINTECH companies, key stakeholders (i.e., banks, telecom companies, and the government), enablers and funding partners (i.e., universities and research institutions, investors, incubators, technology, and consumers). According to Frost and Sullivan, Nigeria’s FINTECH revenue is expected to reach
US$543.3m in 2022 from US$153.1m in 2017