附近上门

COVID-19 is pushing companies to accelerate their innovations in a matter of weeks rather than years, such as accepting mobile payments or giving their brick-and-mortar store an online presence.

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The financial services industry is one of the bright spots in an otherwise gloomy environment of record unemployment and layoffs at companies of all sizes. Despite the current economic climate, companies in the financial services space are not only continuing to hire, but are fundraising and being acquired.

鈥淐onsumers are more open to using financial technology applications and are more trusting,鈥� said Jillian Williams, principal at . 鈥淢eanwhile, financial institutions are being forced to adopt technology because it is uncertain when social distancing is going to end.鈥�

In funding news, fintech companies are seeing more opportunity, she said. For example, in January, Visa acquired –a network that enables users to they use to manage their financial lives–or $5.3 billion. Days later, Visa invested an undisclosed amount in , which helps fintech companies better protect their data.

Meanwhile, stock brokerage firm announced in April it was to improve the app鈥檚 infrastructure.

鈥楽tamp of approval鈥�

Financial technology became popular following the economic downturn in 2007 and 2008, when new companies launched products with the claim they could better serve customers than banks, Williams said.

Back in 2010, companies in that sector represented , according to 附近上门 research. In 2019, it was 16 percent with $43 billion invested.

Recently, companies in the sector received 鈥渁 stamp of approval鈥� from governments due to the recent , she said. Banks, along with financial technology firms, such as mobile payment company , could make loans, while people could receive their stimulus check funds via , she added.

Flush with cash and hiring

Even as companies lay off workers, financial services firms continue to hire. Data from shows that interviews at financial services firms are up 39 percent since Jan. 1 among clients such as Goldman Sachs, PayPal and Morgan Stanley.

鈥淭here is massive acceleration to become a tech-first company,鈥� said , co-founder and CEO of developer hiring firm HackerRank. 鈥淗einz announced it will be selling direct-to-consumer. It is now easy to order via apps like Shopify. You are able to transfer money from one bank to another. We are seeing tech, fintech and retail, in terms of developers, starting to grow more because everyone wants to have an e-commerce presence. It is both frightening and exciting.鈥�

Ravisankar said he credits those figures to another big shift: Companies are getting comfortable with remote hiring. Opening up the talent pool makes it grow larger by 10 times, he said.

鈥淣ow you can hire developers anywhere as long as they are talented,鈥� he added. 鈥淭hat is a massive change.鈥�

Despite headlines to the contrary, hiring is still happening at startups, especially among those who have been able to raise funding.

San Francisco-based , which is building a one-click login and checkout platform to help rid the internet of passwords, plans to hire some 60 people to join its 23-person staff by the end of the year, , co-founder and CEO told 附近上门 News.

Driving Fast鈥檚 goals are not just demand, but also a the company closed in March. It was led by digital payment service firm , which itself announced a extension a few weeks later.

鈥淲here every sector is contracting, there is a credit crunch, people are losing jobs and companies are not actively hiring, we are uniquely growing and hiring,鈥� Holland said. 鈥淲e are very hungry for talent.鈥�

The company is pre-revenue, but its login product is live on hundreds of websites, he said. Not surprising in this environment, one of his fast-growing customers is grocery chains. That sector of Fast鈥檚 business has grown 15 times since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

鈥淭here is a whole wave of people who have to now order groceries online and, for lots of them, that is another password to learn,鈥� Holland said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just grocery, but true of enterprise, in general. We are in a unique position because we can move the needle and move at a blistering pace.鈥�

Tapping into the talent pool

As financial services firms look for their next employees, organizations such as New York-based are ensuring there is a pool of talent out there for them to find.

Flatiron School offers online and on-campus software engineering and data science courses across eight locations in the United States.

Its head of career services, Gretchen Jacobi, said technology has disrupted the financial industry. Now with social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, every experience is聽 disrupted.

Flatiron continues to evaluate which businesses are going to be resilient, which will see an increase in demand and which are hiring, as well as which businesses are freezing their hiring, said Jacobi. In addition, some companies that had offered jobs to graduates, rescinded them when the pandemic hit.

Many students come to the school to learn new skills so they can change careers, Jacobi said, adding that students who have a financial background, such as technology, accounting or marketing, have had success being hired.

鈥淭his shift is requiring consumers to go online to consume content, engage in an experience or buy something,鈥� she said. 鈥淏rick-and-mortar is out, and small retailers are popping up with an e-commerce storefront where they didn鈥檛 have it. We are seeing a lot of activity needing to be supportive on the fintech side. There needs to be fraud protection and advanced payment processing. Fintech can find the tailwind, and we are seeing examples of students accepting jobs at this time in areas such as payment review.鈥�

Illustration: iStock