An emerging market fintech fund lives at the intersection of necessity and invention. You see it every time a local currency crisis turns engineers into infrastructure builders or when regulators leapfrog legacy systems because they never had the luxury of bloat. The coming three years will be less about hype and more about resolution—markets that have been noisy will begin to show shape.
Having watched this cycle for over a decade, I’ve learned that emerging markets don’t follow Silicon Valley’s timeline; they run on constraint. That constraint produces sharper business models, and it’s why 2025–2027 could be the most investable period we’ve seen since mobile money first changed the vocabulary of finance.
1. From “frontier” to “formidable”
The term frontier used to imply fragility. It doesn’t anymore. Today’s African, Latin American, and South Asian fintechs are quietly maturing into full financial infrastructure layers—processing, identity, data, and distribution. Their challenge isn’t relevance; it’s capacity.
Transaction volumes are compounding in double digits, but capital access and risk-adjusted pricing still lag behind demand. That mismatch is precisely where funds like ours operate → Strategic Approach.
One example is cross-border SME finance. While remittance flows attract headlines, B2B corridors between Kenya, Nigeria, and the Gulf have quietly grown faster than retail payments. Similar stories are playing out in Latin America, where regulatory sandboxes → World Bank Fintech Regulation Report 2024 are enabling domestic clearing systems that rival mature markets in efficiency.
The opportunity is no longer in “first payments.” It’s in what happens next: data leverage, credit, and compliance layers built on top of established rails.
2. Signals of durable growth
If you strip out the noise, three clear signals keep surfacing across our pipeline.
Small businesses in emerging markets are the original underwriters of trust. Platforms that give them affordable lending, insurance, or working-capital tools through embedded models will own the most defensible channels. They don’t need to acquire customers; they already serve them daily.
The first generation of alternative lenders focused on access. The next generation focuses on accuracy. We’re now seeing underwriting engines trained on transaction data and supply chain behaviour, not on outdated bureau scores. That shift is material. It replaces collateral with precision.
Winners in this space aren’t consumer-facing brands; they’re invisible plumbing companies connecting banks, wallets, and merchants. They’ll never trend on social media, but they’ll quietly process billions.
Each of these models shares a core trait: a positive feedback loop between regulation, customer behaviour, and capital efficiency. When those three are aligned, growth compounds without leaks.
3. Regulation as enabler
In 2015, regulation was viewed as a brake. By 2025, it’s becoming the flywheel. Most major African regulators now run sandbox programmes that rival the FCA or MAS in design → FSD Africa Regulatory Sandbox Review 2024. The message is clear: partnership beats punishment.
At the same time, licensing is tightening—which is good. A fintech investment fund that operates in regulated markets can price risk more accurately and back founders who have already internalised compliance as part of culture, not bureaucracy.
We’ve built entire sessions with founders around governance and regulator engagement. The outcome is simple: fewer surprises, faster scale.
4. The rise of operator networks
Talent is the quiet currency of fintech. The markets that win aren’t those with the most capital—they’re the ones where experienced operators stay. Nairobi, Lagos, and Cape Town are now producing their own alumni networks, just as Bangalore and São Paulo did before. The people who scaled the first wave of neobanks and payment gateways are recycling that knowledge into new ventures and funds.
For an emerging market fintech fund, this matters more than macroeconomics. Liquidity can cross borders; talent rarely does. Every investment we make includes a map of operator density—where engineers, risk officers, and compliance specialists live.
5. What LPs should watch
Institutional investors often ask where the next curve will bend. I’d point to three inflection zones:
Financial inclusion → Financial infrastructure. Payments, credit, and identity systems merging into unified rails.
Regulation → Collaboration. Cross-border compliance frameworks enabling continental-scale fintechs.
Impact → Institutional. Social outcomes (access, affordability) aligning with returns because efficiency is impact when systems waste less.
LPs entering now will find valuations more rational, founders more data-literate, and funds far more disciplined about pacing and reserves
The story of emerging-market fintech isn’t about catching up. It’s about building the rails the rest of the world will eventually use.
6. What this means for founders
If you’re building inside these markets, the next two years will reward depth over reach. Clarity beats charisma. Regulatory fluency beats speed. And a data trail that proves retention will do more for your valuation than another slide deck.
Startups that win will master one corridor, one license, one risk model, and only then replicate. The temptation to scale horizontally will remain strong, but the funds that have survived the past decade—including ours—are doubling down on founders who scale vertically first.
When we meet a team that has found product–regulation fit, we know they’ll survive turbulence. When we meet one that hasn’t, we take notes for the next cycle.
→ Submit Your Pitch for founders who fit this profile.
7. The 2025–2027 horizon
If 2020–2024 was about survival and signal-finding, the next three years will be about alignment: between policy, capital, and product design. Expect consolidation, but also maturity. Some early pioneers will exit quietly. Others will double their footprint as cost of capital normalises.
For an emerging market fintech fund, that’s healthy. Volatility creates entry points; discipline converts them into returns. See our white paper on Unlocking Growth at the Frontier.
FAQ's
Because inefficiency still costs more than innovation. Every percentage point saved in transaction cost or default rate has outsized effect when margins are tight.
It’s faster, closer to the ground, and often more pragmatic. Regulation evolves in public. Founders who engage early have an advantage because they help shape the rules they live under.
Healthtech, climate finance, and supply-chain credit are next. All sit at the intersection of necessity and scalable tech.
Where to go next
You can explore our investment lens in more detail in the Strategic Approach section (Internal link →).
Founders ready for partnership can reach out via Submit Your Pitch .
Institutional partners will find allocation information under For Institutional Partners
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