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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Fintech innovation depends on more than good technology. Startups need capital, customers, and industry expertise to grow. Investors need to identify promising companies and emerging opportunities. Financial institutions need solutions that address evolving business challenges.
IMPACT Funders & Founders brings these groups together on May 5, 2027, in San Diego to build relationships, exchange insights, and explore what’s next in fintech. Co-located with FinovateSpring, May 3 through May 5, IMPACT also connects participants with a broader community of financial services innovators.
Connections that support growth
IMPACT brings startups, scaleups, and investors together for curated one-to-one meetings based on funding stage and investment focus. Content sessions and Pulse Check roundtables complement these conversations with industry insights, market perspectives, and peer exchange. Explore the benefits for startups.
For investors, Startup Spotlight pitches and IMPACT Zone exhibitors offer additional ways to discover promising companies, explore emerging technologies, and grow their investment pipelines. Both formats provide opportunities to connect with founders and identify businesses aligned with investment strategies. Explore the benefits for investors.
Co-location with FinovateSpring extends these opportunities across the financial services ecosystem. Access to the shared Exhibit Hall on May 5 gives financial institutions a chance to discover new fintech solutions and meet emerging technology providers, while startups can connect with potential customers and explore new routes to market.
Building on the IMPACT community
At the 2026 event, IMPACT facilitated more than 225 meetings and delivered over 275 minutes of content, with more than 200 investors and startups registered. In 2027, IMPACT will bring the fintech community together again for focused meetings, startup pitches, and industry discussions with the added opportunity to engage with FinovateSpring’s financial services audience.
When we announced IMPACT Funders & Founders, we described it as a new kind of event designed to bring together fintech founders and the investors backing the next generation of fintech in a setting built for meaningful conversations, targeted networking, and real fundraising opportunities.
The inaugural IMPACT event, taking place alongside FinovateFall on September 11 in New York City, features venture capitalists, startup founders, corporate investors, accelerators, and ecosystem builders who are actively shaping fintech’s next chapter. Rather than focusing on broad industry trends alone, these speakers will tackle the practical questions founders and investors face every day, such as raising capital, scaling a company, navigating exits, leveraging AI, embedded finance, and the changing venture landscape.
Learn from investors writing today’s checks
Whether you’re raising your first institutional round or preparing for growth-stage funding, one of the biggest advantages of IMPACT is direct access to active investors.
The speaker roster includes partners from venture capital firms, private equity firms, and strategic investors who are evaluating fintech opportunities every day. They’ll discuss what they’re looking for in founders, how investment priorities are evolving, and where they see the greatest opportunities in today’s market.
Hear from founders who’ve been there
Building a fintech company is about far more than securing funding. IMPACT speakers include founders who have navigated product launches, customer acquisition, regulatory hurdles, hiring, scaling, and fundraising firsthand.
Expect candid conversations about the realities of building a fintech company, including the lessons learned from both successes and setbacks.
Gain practical insights from fintech operators
Alongside founders and investors, the program features experienced executives from banks, fintechs, and industry organizations who understand what it takes to bring new financial products to market.
Sessions will explore topics including:
AI and emerging technologies
Go-to-market strategy
Customer acquisition and growth
Bank partnerships
Regulatory considerations
Fundraising strategy
Scaling operations
Explore the full speaker lineup
The IMPACT speaker roster continues to grow as additional investors, founders, and industry leaders are announced, but here is a taste of who you can expect to see on stage.
Many of us fondly remember when, just a handful of years ago, VC funding was abundant. It was a golden era in which startups competed for investor attention, valuations climbed quickly, and founders optimized for growth.
Fast forward five years, and the situation is much different. Venture funding has become much more selective, and while it often favors cutting-edge technologies such as AI and the blockchain, investors have much higher expectations than they did at the dawn of the decade, wanting to see proven traction much earlier. Between the changing economics and new technologies, it is clear that the fundraising environment for fintechs has evolved.
AI is reshaping where venture dollars go
By now, it’s no secret that AI-focused fintechs and ideas are garnering a lot of VC funding. According to CB Insights’ State of Venture 2025 report, AI startups raised $226 billion in 2025, a figure that represented 48% of all global venture funding. This doesn’t mean investors have lost interest in fintech. Instead, fintech companies are increasingly expected to demonstrate how AI strengthens their product, operations, or competitive moat.
All of this is happening while deal counts continue to decline and total venture funding has increased, suggesting that more money is flowing to fewer companies. In other words, fintech fundraising has become increasingly challenging. Generalist investors who previously backed broad fintech opportunities may now devote more attention to AI infrastructure and applications. Therefore, fintech founders need to explain not only why their business matters, but also how AI strengthens their competitive advantage.
Investors are rewarding efficiency more than growth
In 2021, many investors were myopically focused on growth. Today, it is clear that the “growth at all costs” mentality has ended as investors have shifted their focus to long term sustainability. Higher interest rates, a more disciplined venture market, and several years of valuation resets have encouraged investors to prioritize sustainable businesses over rapid expansion. Five years ago, investors used to focus on how fast a company can grow and today they are asking if companies can survive, scale responsibly, and solve a meaningful problem.
What is clear is that investors are looking for sustainable unit economics, realistic customer acquisition costs, recurring revenue, capital efficiency, and credible pathways to profitability. The question has shifted from “How quickly can this company grow?” to “Can this company build an enduring business?” In the fundraising environment of 2026, disciplined execution and financial resilience have become just as compelling as ballooning growth projections.
Relationships matter more than ever
In a world where funding is more competitive than ever, what’s the best move for a founder? Just as with enterprise sales, relationships, fit, and timing matter when it comes to fundraising. At a time when fewer companies are receiving funding, warm introductions and a precise founder-investor fit become the two elements that can make the difference between getting a meeting and getting funded.
Given this, the strongest approach for founders is to spend time building relationships before formally raising capital. Instead of pitching everyone, founders’ strategy looks like building credibility with the right investors.
What’s a founder to do?
None of these changes mean fundraising has become impossible. But they do mean that founders need a different playbook than they did just a few years ago.
That’s one reason Finovate launched the new IMPACT Funders & Founders event. As fundraising becomes more relationship-driven and investors become more selective, founders benefit from opportunities to meet qualified investors, hear directly from active VCs, and build connections before they need them most.
The good news is that capital will continue flowing to companies solving meaningful problems. The founders who understand and adapt to today’s investment landscape will be best positioned to secure it.
Finovate’s IMPACT Funders & Founders event takes place on September 11, 2026 in New York. Reserve your spot today and check out our blog coverage for more detail on what to expect.
For more founder-focused insights on the current market, check out a panel conversation from FinovateSpring where investors discussed where investment will continue, shared their thoughts on M&A expectations, and analyzed whether or not the bubble has already burst in fintech.
A decade ago, Finovate launched its developer conference series FinDEVr. The goal was simple: to provide a place for software developers, programmers, and technologists to showcase APIs, open banking solutions, developer tools, and more during a truly revolutionary time in the history of fintech innovation.
Today, one of the biggest challenges to fintech innovation is ensuring that fintech founders get the support and funding they need to grow and succeed in an even more complex and competitive financial services landscape.
Meet IMPACT
The first-ever event bridging capital and innovation in the financial services space, IMPACT Funders & Founders comes to New York for a full day of curated investor meetings, dynamic discussions, and breakthrough pitches from innovative startups ready to scale. Running concurrently with FinovateFall, IMPACT Funders & Founders takes place on Friday, September 11, at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square.
Heather Stowell, Finovate VP and Informa Senior Director, shared her thoughts on the upcoming event, and why it is an important opportunity for fintech founders and investors alike.
The core of this new event is to connect startups and scaleups with investors. Many of these startups and scaleups will be raising funding, but we also want to foster an exchange of information.
So, in addition to raising funding, a lot of these conversations will also revolve around investors’ insights that they can share with startups and fostering connections with investors early on that will be useful down the road. It’s all about combining these two communities and creating a real synergy between them.
Heather Stowell is the VP of Demos for Finovate and Senior Director of Fintech and Startup Ecosystems for Informa. Over the last 10 years, Stowell has curated innovative demo lineups for dozens of events, launched a developer conference series in the US and abroad, coached startups to help them deliver impactful demos and presentations, and coordinated VC connections for startups raising early-stage funding.
For years, Finovate has helped fintechs connect with banks and other customers. This September, we’re launching a new event designed to help fintechs connect with the people who fund them.
Taking place on September 11 alongside FinovateFall in New York, IMPACT: Funders & Founders brings together fintech startups, scaleups, and investors for a full day of networking, content, meetings, and startup pitches. While FinovateFall is built around helping fintech companies meet potential customers, IMPACT is designed to help fintech founders build relationships with investors.
Who Should Attend?
IMPACT is for fintech founders and their teams and investors.
On the startup side, the event is geared toward fintech startups and scaleups, particularly companies that have raised up to a Series A round. On the investor side, we’re bringing together venture capital firms, angel investors, private equity investors, family offices, and limited partners.
Whether a company is actively fundraising or simply looking to build relationships for the future, IMPACT offers an opportunity to connect with investors who understand the fintech landscape.
Why Are We Creating IMPACT?
While investors have long attended Finovate events, we’ve seen growing demand for a dedicated event focused specifically on fundraising, investing, and startup growth.
IMPACT creates structured opportunities for founders and their teams and investors to connect through pre-arranged, one-on-one meetings, networking sessions, roundtable discussions, and live startup pitches featuring investor feedback and Q&A. The goal is to create an event where meaningful conversations and connections can happen more efficiently than through traditional networking alone.
What Can Attendees Expect?
The event features two dedicated content tracks.
The Investor Stage will explore topics such as AI in investment operations, emerging fund structures, venture capital trends, and the future of fintech investing.
The Founder & Startup Stage will focus on fundraising strategy, go-to-market planning, scaling a fintech company, building industry connections, and leveraging AI for growth.
In addition to attending content sessions, eligible startups can participate in the IMPACT Zone, a dedicated showcase area in Finovate’s Exhibit Hall where companies can meet investors and fellow founders throughout the day. Startups raising pre-seed through Series A funding can also apply to deliver a four-minute pitch in front of investors.
How Is IMPACT Different from FinovateFall?
While IMPACT takes place alongside FinovateFall, the two events serve different purposes.
FinovateFall helps fintechs connect with buyers and partners through live demos and networking. IMPACT helps fintechs connect with investors and advisors who can help fuel their next stage of growth.
Together, the events support fintech companies throughout their journey in everything from raising capital to winning customers. Whether you’re a founder seeking your next investor, a startup executive looking to expand your network, or an investor searching for the next breakout fintech company, IMPACT offers a new way to connect with the people shaping the future of financial services.
If you’d like to register or learn more, check out our website to learn about opportunities that best fit your needs.
