BigTech, Partnerships, and the Evolution of the Fintech Ecosystem

David Penn speaks to Tom Feher and Sandeep Mangaraj of Microsoft about it's increasing involvement in fintech

The growing presence of BigTech in the fintech ecosystem is one of the stories of 2020 that will likely be among the top stories of 2021, as well. As companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft look to fintech for new markets and opportunities to innovate, how will their relationship with the fintech ecosystem evolve and change?

For a few answers to this and other questions, check out our interview with Microsoft’s Sandeep Mangaraj and Tom Feher, industry executives, Digital Transformation, Financial Services, filmed during our previous event, FinovateFall Digital 2020.

What is the value of partnership as BigTech becomes more involved in fintech?

Mangaraj: Microsoft leads with partners. That’s been true throughout our history and especially given what we are facing now, all the uncertainty and challenges that our partners are facing. I don’t see that changing. Our partners were quick to respond to what happened with COVID. They leveraged the power of our platform, and they were there immediately with creative and innovative solutions.

That has been the story of Microsoft. What is it that we provide? We have a secure, compliant, scalable platform that they can innovate on, and we are

here to help them and support them, and make sure that they take advantage of the full power of what we offer, what they offer, and what our other partners offer, to take to their clients.

Feher: Partners are key to our success. We have several programs to help incubate and expand our fintech ecosystem. This includes everything from Microsoft for Startups, a program that assists startups in building solutions on our platform, to our M12 Ventures program that invests in a portfolio of fintechs in the industry. We also have our worldwide partner organization that focuses on strategic alliances and partnerships with fintechs that enable us to bring net new solutions to market on our platform that accelerate our clients’ innovation and well as helping them drive business outcomes.