Here's what's hot — and what's not — in fintech right now

cnbc.com:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — At last year's Money 20/20 — Europe's marquee event for the financial technology industry — investors and industry insiders were abuzz with talk about embedded finance, open banking, and banking-as-a-service.

As nebulous as these terms may be, they reflected a very real push from tech startups, including the biggest names in the business such as Stripe and Starling Bank, to allow businesses of all stripes to develop their own financial services, or integrate other firms' products into their platforms.

This year, with fintechs and their mainly venture capital and private-equity backers reeling from a dire slump in technology valuations and softer consumer spending, the narrative around what's «hot» in fintech hasn't changed an awful lot.

Investors still love companies offering services to enterprises rather than consumers. In some cases, they've been willing to write checks for firms at valuations unchanged from their last funding round. But there are a few key differences — not least the thing of curiosity that is generative artificial intelligence.

So what's hot in fintech right now? And what's not? CNBC spoke to some of the top industry insiders at Money 20/20 in Amsterdam. Here's what they had to say.

Looking around Money 20/20 this week, it was easy to see a clear trend going on. Business-facing or business-to-business companies like Airwallex, Payoneer, and ClearBank, dominated the show floor, while consumer apps such as Revolut, Starling, and N26 were nowhere to be found.

«I think many fintechs have pivoted to enterprise sales having found consumer hard to make sufficient unit economics — plus it's pretty expensive to get a stand and attend M2020 so you need to be selling to other attendees