Why I like FinTech, EdTech & NewsTech?

Achievements in our society have always been proportional to effort and input, while effort depends on an individual, the input is an area which startups can work on and if everyone has access to the same input, we certainly will have a more equal society. This is the very reason I like and have high hopes from EdTech, FinTech & NewsTech startups. 

FinTech

The disruption in Finance industry by the FinTech’s continue to reduce the barrier to entry for many and has successfully democratized some of the financial services which until a few years back were limited to a few and there are many more disruptions to happen in this area from how we pay to how we save, borrow and lend. 

EdTech

The next area which has taken a cue from FinTech or one could debate that it precedes FinTech’s is EdTech, while the last decade has seen digitization of learning resources, the recent pandemic has focused on the delivery of learning services itself, there is still far more to come. EdTech has far larger potential to improve outcomes of many by bringing down the cost of learning and thereby democratizing competitions and entry to institutions which ultimately lead to social and economic upliftment. 

NewsTech

The last but the most important in my list is NewsTech because it is through the news that most of us consume information and lately with the advent of free to consume news & paid news through subscriptions, we all have access to different quality of news depending on our spending priorities and also our biases.  Our views and actions are largely shaped by the news we consume, it will be interesting to see how tech can democratize access to news, so all of us could make informed decisions based on facts.

So where are we these three techs?

FinTech is quite matured and truly democratizing the market, with Robinhood being the true torchbearer and fuelled by its success there are many helping millions save and manage their finances. There is still a lot to be done in the micro-lending and peer-to-peer lending business as this is where most exploitation takes place. 

EdTech world is ripe with opportunities, with the focus been on improving the lives of teachers and students and now Learntinue has started to focus on the whole family.  I believe that consolidation in this sector will truly deliver the economics of scale to end consumer and deliver benefit to many, not just a few.

NewsTech is still in its very early stages, I am not sure whether to call it NewsTech or InfTech or JournTech but its basically the way we are going to consume news. With just a handful of news players in the industry, there are quite a few subscription options but they are either costly or come with their own political alignment. It is difficult to think of a solution which will deliver factual news without any bias, be affordable to many and at the same time be a profitable venture but am sure tech will be able to solve this in near future.