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<b><i>Legal Tech:</b></i> Contracting with a Fintech Company

By Bryan G. Handlos and Kevin F. Griffith
August 01, 2016

Your favorite internal client has just messaged you about a new contract that needs a rush review. The counterparty is reportedly one of the hottest new “fintech” companies in Silicon Valley. You are the master of all things vendor contract-related in your shop, but perhaps this is the first fintech contract to cross your desk. This article addresses some of the special issues that might be presented by this sort of contract.

What Is Fintech?

“Fintech” is a buzzword. It is commonly understood to refer to a services sector focused on providing innovative online or mobile financial services. Customers are usually consumers. Among the most talked about consumer-facing fintech services are: Betterment (investment advice), Motif (brokerage), OnDeck Capital (small business lending), SoFi (consumer lending), Venmo (payments) and Personal Capital (financial planning). Nonetheless, commercial customer products also exist. Some leading examples are: Zenefits (insurance), C2FO (cash flow management), TransPay (cross-border payments), and Tradeshift (electronic invoicing). Commercial fintech can be expected to grow. Investments in B2B tech start-ups were up 40% to $11.9B year-over-year through the end of March 2016. Fintech service providers are mostly not banks, although it is common for them to partner with banks. Banks have fintech offerings too and they will likely increase their presence in the field in the near term. This article, however, focuses mostly on the issues presented by non-bank fintech companies. Contracting with a bank would mostly involve different considerations. Frequently a fintech service provider is a start-up or recent entrant to the field.

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