Earlier this year, PwC’s Vicki Huff Eckert published a report that looked at the impact of VC investment on the technology industry. Eckert is Vice Chair for Technology, Media, and Communications – and the global leader of New Ventures and Innovation – for PwC. She will be featured at FinovateSpring next week in San Francisco as part of our Fireside Chat series.
Eckert’s report, Living in a World of Unicorns, examines the role that venture capital has played in not just funding, but in actually helping transform a variety of industries – including fintech and financial services. Some of her key takeaways as they relate to fintech specifically include:
“Tech is now influencing so many verticals that the investments and business processes in those verticals are evolving and beginning to blur industry lines.”
“In the U.S., companies are mostly using AI to improve performance, gain greater insights from their data, or automate business operations. In China, AI companies are primarily focused on facial recognition and computer vision. Alarmingly, investment in cybersecurity hasn’t kept pace …”
“The growth of the platform economy and e-commerce created an unprecedented need for seamless, cross-border, highly scalable digital payments.”
“The digitization of the economy is also establishing the foundation and infrastructure for digital currencies to eventually go mainstream.”
“Today’s unicorns aren’t just shaping capital markets and investment strategies, they are shaping and redefining the industries in which they operate – by developing new products and services, expanding rapidly into new geographic markets, and using their cash (and valuable stock) to attract talent.”
Check out the report from PwC’s Vicki Huff Eckert, and then be sure to join us next week for our Fireside Chat at FinovateSpring in San Francisco, Friday morning, May 20th at 9:30am.