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Fintech For Gen Z: Who’s Going To Win In This New Frontier?

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By Abhipriti Velamakanni

Gen Z is the largest growing population worldwide—with an estimated spending power of $140B—positioning this demographic as one of the most sought-after customer segments in fintech. Traditional banking players realize this potential, and they are creating new offerings tailored specifically to them. Neobanks such as Revolut have also started making inroads into this expanding segment. However, new players targeting specific use cases for Gen Z consumers are fast emerging.

What are the key features needed to draw in the winner’s share of wallets for this age group? Fintech companies across the board are fighting for a piece of the pie in developed economies such as the United States—and there isn’t a clear winner yet.

To understand the competencies required to win over Gen Z, it is first important to identify the characteristics that determine the consumer behavior of this generation. There are 3 key dimensions that define the consumer behavior of this segment:

Tech Savviness

Gen Z is an extremely tech-savvy population. In fact, their savviness has led them to be far more experienced and design-focused than previous generations. This experience mindset has paved the way for offerings and platforms that can take on multiple tasks seamlessly.

For example, Revolut offers a whole suite of financial services that includes a unique combination of investment (with no-fee conversion), budgeting and payment tools, all featuring an extremely user-friendly interface. Their list of offerings has even expanded to include BNPL, credit cards and more.

Uprise is another prime example of fintech multi-tasking in the North American market. The speed of setting up an account and getting started is an attractive quality for customers who are especially aware of lag times and clunky tech. While traditional banks are upping their technology game by introducing mobile banking, spend tracking and budgeting, their platforms are not without design flaws and are often hamstrung by sub-par user experiences. Multifaceted companies like Uprise and Revolut demonstrate that unique neobanks structures and multitasking fintech applications have an edge in winning the Gen Z segment.


[Gen Z’s] savviness has led them to be far more experienced and design-focused than previous generations. This experience mindset has paved the way for offerings and platforms that can take on multiple tasks.


Financial Freedom

Gen Z has been gaining financial freedom from a younger age compared to previous generations, raking in over $40B per year just through side gigs. This is partly a result of incomes generated through social media and content creation. Additionally this generation has accumulated significant purchasing power due to the increased savings behavior that has been cultivated from an early age as a result of the financial crisis of 2008, and during the COVID pandemic. In fact, during the pandemic, Gen Z doubled the time spent on finance and trading apps, underscoring genuine interest in their financial health. This healthy appetite for investment and saving, along with this generation’s growing spending power makes this an attractive customer segment.


During the pandemic, Gen Z doubled the time spent on finance and trading apps, underscoring genuine interest in their financial health.


While the attractiveness of this customer segment is obvious, there is still a significant gap between purchasing power and financial literacy for this group. This gap is a market opportunity that can be filled through fintech applications geared towards financial education of young, newly independent spenders. One such example is Zogo, which gamifies the experience of financial learning. Another proven strategy is the hyper-personalized advice leveraged by companies like Mint, where subscriptions and paychecks are forecasted alongside advice on how to save, and avenues to save are shown with a clear actionable button built right into the application.

An additional way to win in the advice segment is through capitalizing on Gen Z’s affinity for advice from trusted influencers and peers. Targeting to offer personalized advice within a ‘cluster based’ algorithm, coupled with a success metrics approach to investment advice—similar to what Spotify uses to make song recommendations—is a potentially game-changing combination.

Social Media Influence

With the rise of Tik-Tok and reels, one noticeable characteristic of Gen Z’s consumption habits is a short attention span. Contrary to past marketing tactics, the way to capture young people’s attention is through short, engaging videos that are to the point rather than through articles and blogs. This provides an additional challenge when it comes to marketing to acquire these Gen Z’ers. The rise of social media also means that it is easier to reach this generation, yet harder to get them to take action on the message/ad. Therefore, a major capability that fintech will have to develop is social media driven digital marketing and a ‘finfluencer’ model to acquire early adopters and super spreaders.

Up and coming, use-case specific fintech offerings have an edge in this aspect, considering that they have already incorporated a more social media driven feel right into their platform. Alinea exemplifies this approach with its Instagram story-inspired tool for interacting with and among users.

Gen Z is a population that wants it all; they are digital natives and turn to social media and online platforms for a multitude of reasons. Social media, due to its network effect and influencer ecosystems, offers significant potential to reach the Gen Z segment very effectively in a highly targeted and engaging manner. The key to being successful in this space is to offer a one stop shop for multiple financial needs, being extremely user-friendly in design, and offering financial advice in areas where this generation is not yet adept in such as insurance, while effectively leveraging the power of social media.

It is clear that Gen Z presents a significant opportunity for fintech players to offer meaningful services that resonate with a highly engaged, tech-savvy audience that wants companies to meet them where they are. This makes it difficult for traditional banks to pivot in a way that would effectively reach critical mass in this segment. Newer players that are in tune with the needs and aspirations of Gen Z, and can reach them in a more user-friendly manner, are the ones that are poised to succeed in this growing and diversified population segment.

Additionally, due to the large number of niches and specialty areas that are being created in fintech—from financial advice to retail banking, and everything in between—there will be several players emerging to service these varied areas of specialty. This will undoubtedly transform the fintech landscape in a relatively short period. The players that will succeed are the ones that can understand the needs of customers in this segment intimately, as well as those that are backed by enough venture funding to be able to survive this inevitable shakeout.


Abhipriti Sanjana V. ‘22 is a graduate student at Columbia University, with a MS in Management from LBS. She works on the investment team at Next Play Capital and is passionate about early-stage startups in FinTech and Consumer segments.

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