“There is incredible saturation among debit cards and credit cards in the U.S. and Europe. So people already had a way to pay digitally that isn’t cash,” said Arieh Levi, senior analyst at CB Insights. “In areas where mobile is common, there weren’t really established legacy players already.”
Payments are increasingly going digital with a number of start-ups seeing venture capital seed money to help facilitate online purchases. According to research company Pitchbook, data shows that investors put $18.5 billion into the payment processing sector in 2018–an increase of five times the previous year.
ETFs to look at in the growing fintech space include the Global X FinTech ETF (NasdaqGM: FINX) and the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (NYSEArca: ARKF). Both ETFs are up year-to-date–FINX is up 22 percent and ARKF is up 5 percent.
ARKF invests in equity securities of companies that ARK believes are shifting financial services and economic transactions to technology infrastructure platforms, ultimately revolutionizing financial services by creating simplicity and accessibility while driving down costs.
For more market trends, visit ETF Trends
