The Next Fintech Revolution Will Not Be in Silicon Valley

In 2019, just one day after my commencement ceremony at Northwestern, I boarded two back-to-back 13-hour flights to Cape Town for an internship at Knife Capital.

That experience was transformational.

I witnessed exceptional talent, cutting-edge tech, and ingenuity flourishing in ways often overlooked in the U.S. Since then, supporting and investing in this dynamic ecosystem has become a personal passion. Over the past five years, I’ve covered these developments for Forbes (like here and here). Recently, at Visa’s product launch in San Francisco, I was struck by how many of the trends I’ve been writing about for years are now front and center in mainstream fintech conversations.

What I’ve observed confirms that while much of the fintech narrative still centers on developed markets, some of the most compelling innovation is actually happening elsewhere.

🏭 What Africa, LatAm, and Southeast Asia reveal about where fintech is headed

In regions like Nigeria, Indonesia, and Mexico, startups are building for structural realities that Silicon Valley never encountered: fragmented regulation, cash-heavy economies, and informal labor markets. These are not just obstacles. They are design constraints that shape better products.

Here are the key trends I see defining fintech in emerging markets today:

💡Deeper vertical integration: Fintech is embedding itself into sectors like retail and logistics, creating solutions tailored to local industries. Mukuru, an African fintech, integrates directly into WhatsApp to facilitate money transfers. Reaching customers on platforms that they already spend time on makes helps make financial services more accessible and user friendly.

💡More M&A activity: Startups are consolidating, signaling a maturing market.

💡Uneven regional progress: For example, Brazil has benefited from a proactive central bank and strong digital infrastructure, enabling rapid adoption of innovations like Pix, its instant payments system. In contrast, some parts of Central America still face connectivity and financial literacy gaps that slow fintech adoption.

💡Fragmented regulation: Rules are still evolving and vary widely by region.

💡Growing partnerships: New collaborations are helping fintech startups scale faster, build distribution, and navigate regulatory complexity. In Latin America, where financial infrastructure can vary significantly between countries, strategic partnerships are often the fastest route to market penetration.

Example: In Mexico, Klar, a digital banking platform, partnered with Mastercard early in its growth to issue debit cards and tap into Mastercard’s fraud prevention and compliance tools. Klar also teamed up with retailers and service providers to offer cashback and installment payment options—building trust and usage among underbanked consumers. These partnerships allowed Klar to scale quickly and differentiate in a crowded neobank market.

This is fintech 3.0 in action:
✔️ Focus on value creation over blitzscaling
✔️ Verticalized solutions tailored to local needs
✔️ End-to-end thinking from product to compliance
✔️ A playbook built for untapped, underserved markets

Why it matters for the U.S.
Many of the same structural gaps that define emerging markets exist in our own backyard. Millions of Americans still live outside the reach of traditional banking—relying on payday loans, cash-based work, or remittances to manage their financial lives.

Rather than waiting for legacy institutions to adapt, we can learn from fintechs operating in low-trust, low-infrastructure settings abroad. Their strategies—hyper-local design, embedded finance, community-based distribution—may offer more relevant blueprints for financial inclusion here at home than anything coming out of Manhattan or Menlo Park.

Fintech’s future is already here. We just need to broaden the lens.

🗣 What’s On Your Mind

The WSJ posted an article suggesting that Americans are pulling back on summer vacation plans due to inflation. Naturally, I had to ask you—is that really true?

Here’s what you told me:

On overwhelming majority are indeed cutting back. Whether it’s planning shorter trips or opting to stay with friends, you all shared that economic uncertainty is changing your spending habits.

The takeaway?

Experiences matter, but so does financial peace of mind. This might be a signal for brands to rethink how they market ‘luxury’ in this economy. More on that soon…

🎙 Content Recap

This week’s Money Memories is a re-air of one of my favorite episodes: my conversation with Alejandra Lozano, a Financial Wellbeing Coach at Operation HOPE based in South LA. Her story is a powerful reminder that financial trauma is generational—and so is healing.

In my recent Forbes articles, I’ve been exploring some exciting themes that connect to these grassroots realities:

• In an interview with Mattoboard’s co-founder, we delved into how design thinking born in Johannesburg is influencing the next generation of collaborative software. (Read it here)

• In my latest analysis of emerging market SMBs, I unpack how startups across Latin America and Africa are solving for infrastructure gaps with verticalized fintech tools—lessons that could reshape how we think about small business enablement in the U.S. (Read it here)

Across these stories, one thing is clear: whether you are a shoebox saver in South LA or a SaaS builder in Nairobi, the future of finance will be hyperlocal, deeply personal, and structurally bold.

📍 Where I’ll Be

If you are attending any of these upcoming events, let me know. I would love to find time to connect:

• May 21 - 22: I’m moderating a panel on the women’s digital health investment landscape for cardiovascular and neurological solutions, featuring the founders of Aware Health and Soundable Health. If you’re interested, sign up here.

• I’ll be in Vancounver for webSummit in Vancouver (May 27 - 30), if you are around and want to grab coffee, let me know!

• June 10: I’m hosting my own networking event for founders and investors in Los Angeles. Sign up here to attend and / or share with a friend!

I’m going to start hosting more workshops and meetups, so keep your eyes peeled to this newsletter to be the first to know.

🔗 Other Interesting Reads & Listens

📌This New Investing Idea Isn’t Right for Your Retirement Plan: The WSJ with an interesting take. I recently spoke with the founder of Percent, a private credit platform, and he had some interesting rebuttals to this. I’ll feature this in an upcoming edition of this newsletter, so stay tuned.

📌Crystal City Beat Manchester City to Win the FA Cup - A trophyless season for Manchester City makes me feel better as an Arsenal fan.

As always, I would love to hear your feedback. Is there something you want to see more (or less) of? Just hit reply and send me your thoughts—or DM me on IG.

Till next week!
💛 Ilona