The Golden Gate To The Golden State Of Fintech

New ideas seem to become booming businesses overnight, if the mobile and cloud revolutions in tech are any indication. However, it might be time to ask what’s next.

The world has seen innovations that optimize the way people, goods and information travel, like Apple Inc. AAPL's iPhone and the advent of self-driving cars. Next: massive leaps forward in how money moves throughout the world.

Financial technology is a growing part of American society, changing the way that people spend, save and manage their money through new applications of technologies like data science and artificial intelligence.

The profession of the traditional financial advisor is quickly being upended by the introduction of robo advisors, automated investment algorithms that manage money. Electronic lending has replaced the tiring process of going to a bank to apply for loans. International money transfers can now be done with cryptocurrency conversions as opposed to spending days working through banks’ outdated ACH systems.

Although there are a few hubs of fintech development in the world’s finance capitals, one city has emerged as an epicenter of the phenomenon in the U.S.: San Francisco, California, the site of the Benzinga Fintech Summit.

Hundreds of fintech startups and giants are changing the way that the world does business in the Bay Area. It’s not a fad, either; these are companies that could one day replace your bank.

How The Financial District Does Fintech

The center of San Francisco’s financial businesses is the city’s Financial District. Here people can find widely recognized names such as Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, salesforce.com, inc. CRM and Charles Schwab Corp. SCHW.

That said, while the San Francisco’s Financial District is stock full of blue chip financial corporations, the real nucleus of fintech in San Francisco is the outskirts of the region. Home to Square Inc. SQ, Paypal Holdings Inc. PYPL, Visa Inc. V, many startups are catching wind in this area.

The area just south of the Financial District is loaded with the biggest and brightest lending startups. From Affirm to Capsilon to Credit Sesame to Earnest, the streets and avenues that make up the region between the Financial District and South of Market are brimming with companies that are in line to take over and dominate electronic lending in the next decade.

Bay Area AI

The artificial intelligence scene in the Bay Area is a bit more dispersed. While companies like MindMeld and Noodle.ai are comfortable settled in just southwest of the Financial District, there are others like Ayasdi that call the San Jose area its home.

San Francisco is also host to some of the top blockchain companies and startups in the world. Chain, Tierion, Snapcard, and Bitfury all sit nicely in or just outside the Financial District and are all revolutionizing money movement throughout the world. On a larger scale, Ripple, one of the leading fintech global payments companies in the world, is perched nicely in the San Francisco Financial District.

In the personal investing space, Wealthfront is streamlining loan and financial planning processes through a feasible mobile medium. SigFig uses high technology to create balanced and personalized portfolios, and NerdWallet is becoming the hub for free information on credit cards, banking, investing, mortgages, loans, and credit scores. All are headquartered in the Bay Area.

There was once a time when managing finances, sending money, receiving loans, payments, and small business growth were tiring, boring, and dragging processes. Is it possible that these agonizing processes are becoming easy and even efficient? As with all revolutions, only time will tell if its effects last.

If you’re looking for cool fintech startups and access to top financial institutions, and are sick of attending stuffy corporate conferences, the Benzinga Fintech Summit is the event for you. Visit www.bzsummit.com for more details.

Connect with us on social media — use the hashtag #BZAwards and #Fintech to spread the word