Frankfurt is one of the oldest business centres in the world. From at least Roman times, the low-lying city, bifurcated by the welcoming River Main, has been a hotspot for global endeavours that changed the nature of many industries – including but not limited to banking. Mayer Rothschild, a courtier to the German king of Hessen at the time, used the famous freedoms of the city to launch a global banking empire in the 1760’s.
These days, Frankfurt is not just Europe’s banking centre and home to the European Central Bank. It is also on the verge of leading another revolution – in Fintech.
Why?
The first is just geography. In no other city where Fintech has taken hold are the presence of financial types and large banks so concentrated in such a small place. Frankfurt is roughly the size of Charlotte, North Carolina (the second largest banking centre in the U.S.) However, its residents, few in number compared to other large and influential cities and banking hubs, are both highly international (40% of the city is from somewhere else) and highly financially literate.
Further, with Fintech taking hold as a revolutionary force in banking and insurance, the large banks here are considering how to transition in a digital world which will change their business operations and market footprint – and that is not limited just to corporate banks, but global powerhouses like the ECB itself.
Frankfurt is an increasingly dynamic hub of Fintech start-ups, with unparalleled access to large banks. Even in London and New York, both financial superpowers in their own right, Fintechs do not have the same ability to reach power brokers and decision makers so easily and directly.
Frankfurt is also home to a well-heeled group of investors – whether they be individual “angels” or family offices – who are looking, at this point, for the next digital growth story. That makes the city one of the best places to both live and pitch on a regular basis. The start-up scene itself here is relatively tightly knit but, critically, also open to newcomers. Most advertise meetings on the Meetup Platform. It is possible to go to (at least) one event every day of the week.
Cross promotion of different kinds of events is also beginning to happen as the scene begins to mature. While the opening of Accelerator Frankfurt marks the first of such entities, it won’t be the last. Free office space for promising start-ups is relatively easy to find.
Unlike Berlin, Frankfurt also promises to be a city that promotes the growth of more B2B financial endeavours. While there are digital entrepreneurs here with start-ups of every kind, the mix in Frankfurt promises to see an increasing slate of innovative business models challenging every part of the banking and insurance business (which in Germany are more tightly linked than almost anywhere else in the world).
The impact of Brexit is also likely to give the Fintech start up scene here a boost, although it is uncertain at this juncture how much of one and in what form. What it is likely to do, however, besides sending a flood of British expats, is create a banking industry itself that is ripe for change and innovation.
Frankfurt is also (relatively speaking) far cheaper to live and work in (certainly comparable to Berlin). There are regional trains, subways that line up with station platforms and even street trains (plus busses) that make this little gem on the Main a potential start up paradise.
Four hundred years after Rothschild revolutionized banking, therefore, on the banks of the Main, another age dawns that promises innovations that are just as earthshattering, albeit this time, digital.
Marguerite Arnold is an entrepreneur, author and third semester EMBA candidate at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.
(Image Source: Wikipedia)
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