MBA Insider: Wharton FinTech

It’s the year of FinTech—at least according to The Market Mogul. While the concept of FinTech has been around for more than fifty years, only in the last decade has it really begun to emerge as a prominent industry. Now, FinTech is everywhere, and more and more startups and technologies are popping across the U.S. than ever before.

What Is FinTech?

At Wharton, FinTech is defined as “an economic industry composed of companies that use technology to make financial systems more efficient.” Today, FinTech takes on many forms. It includes big technology firms such as Apple and Facebook, both of whom have made a foray into the online payment game, to banks investing in technology to better serve their customers. But no matter what form it takes, there’s no doubt that FinTech is changing the way business is being done.

Below are a few key statistics about FinTech from Nordic Startup Bits:

• Globally, over $49.7 billion has been invested into the FinTech industry.
• There are currently around 1,362 FinTech companies in 54 countries.
• FinTech is a fast growing industry due to the fact that financial services is one of the biggest industries in the world, and more people are accessing financial services using mobile devices than ever before.

 

So, it’s no surprise that business schools have started to get in on the action. For example, the Wharton School recently launched the first student-led FinTech initiative: Wharton FinTech.

Wharton FinTech

Daniel McAuley and Steve Weiner, two MBA students at the Wharton School, founded Wharton FinTech because they saw a need on campus for a better understanding of FinTech and how it affects the world. They spoke about the idea with Wharton Magazine.

“Technology, data and entrepreneurship are massively impacting finance and our generation wants to be a part of that. FinTech is the natural avenue for students to apply their prior experience to a high growth technology vertical and Wharton, with its unparalleled finance pedigree and focus on technology on both coasts, is the place to do it. We’re also seeing a lot of interest from people who have non-finance backgrounds but recognize that FinTech is an exciting industry and a great way to narrow the search for a startup that is doing something they care about that has the potential to change the world.”

And that’s how Wharton FinTech was born, and it had a great start, “raising money from industry partners to run a robust slate of programming for more than 200 members,” explained a Wharton MBA blog.

Wharton FinTech is a student-created and led initiative that is “committed to education, career development and idea generation by connecting innovative, established, disruptive, and proven FinTech enterprises with students and industry professionals.” The initiative accomplishes its goal by offering hands-on projects, speaker series, and panel discussions that engage both industry leaders and students with sessions on topics like peer-to-peer lending and personal financial management markets. There are also yearly Career Treks to top FinTech companies in San Francisco and New York. Through these events, students are introduced to the latest ideas, trends, and developments in FinTech.

“We wanted to have an educational component because FinTech is pretty new,” Steve explained in a blog. “We wanted career services because we wanted to help people find jobs.  We wanted to be thought leaders by both supporting the ideas that are out there and creating our own original content.”

FinTech Blog, Podcasts and Career Services

Other opportunities to learn provided by Wharton FinTech include an online blog, a regular podcast and career services.

The blog provides readers with the latest information about the FinTech industry. A recent topic included a look at Zelle, a payment app that is purported to be a “Venmo-killer.” In the blog, the author—a Wharton MBA—dissects the three key issues that could either make Zelle the next big thing in FinTech or just another player crowding the space.

As for the Wharton FinTech Podcast, it features founders, investors, students and thinkers from the world of FinTech. Each podcast offers a unique perspective and discusses the latest trends, topics, and ideas to shape the financial services industry. Ed O’Brien, the CEO of eMoney Advisor, gave one of the most recent podcasts; he spoke about the “Future of Financial Advice.”

The final piece of Wharton FinTech is all about career services. “We have successfully sourced opportunities at leading companies such as Wealthfront, Nerdwallet, Apple Pay, Personal Capital and MasterCard, in addition to building relationships with accelerators and investors such as Fintech Collective, Citi Ventures, Barclays and Techstars,” explains the website. This means that students who participate in the program have an opportunity to land an internship or full-time employment at some of the biggest FinTech companies around.

Why Wharton Students Love FinTech

So far, FinTech has been a hit at Wharton. Chandni Chopra, a recent MBA graduate, told Wharton Magazine that “her interest is about being ‘part of the movement to financially empower people of all socioeconomic classes around the world.” As for Carissa Feria, the Vice President of Finance for Wharton FinTech, she chose the industry as the best way to impact the Philippines, her home country and to use her seven years of experience in finance.

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