Volatile economic conditions are causing substantial turmoil in the financial sector. While global fintech funding dropped 17 percent to $52.4 billion in the first half of 2023, Singapore’s funding fell to $934 million across 84 deals. In such a turbulent landscape, fintech companies need to embrace the world of DevOps to streamline software delivery and operations.
The dynamic fintech market in Singapore
A cloud of uncertainty is permeating the fintech market in Singapore, causing a lot of chaos for investors. Driven by factors including global macroeconomic concerns, depressed valuations, and a continued lack of exits, the landscape is particularly unstable and unpredictable:
- Geopolitical risks between emerging economies and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine continue to significantly reorganize global structures and relationships.
- Green funding is becoming a major focus area for most investors as energy and climate change discussions continue to impact investment opportunities in Southeast Asia.
- The AI invasion caused by the growth in generative AI has attracted several deals in Singapore, amounting to $129 million in the first half of 2023.
- Rising interest rates have set the stage for continued expansion in the fintech space, enabling mature organizations to increase their reach and bring in solid returns.
- High inflation is causing fintechs in Singapore to build products that incentivize customers to hold balances, including higher perks and bonuses.
The challenges that come along
As global concerns continue to reshape the fintech market in Singapore, several challenges stand in the way of growth and success.
- Widespread acquisitions: With the sector witnessing a slowdown in deal activity, acquisitions have become a way of life for fintechs in Singapore. Exploring options and preparing for potential deals when market conditions improve is a great way to enter new markets, expand the customer base, and offer a new and improved set of products and services.
- New technology adoption: Sustaining growth and maintaining market position require fintechs to embrace new technology innovations. From AI to cryptocurrency, automation to IoT – fintechs in Singapore are increasingly exploring the benefits of modern technology across different use cases.
- Market exploration: As market conditions continue to fluctuate, many fintechs are also looking to explore (and enter) new markets. They are constantly weighing opportune investments or partnerships that would strengthen their current offering, bridge regulatory gaps, and/or support new capabilities.
How DevOps helps fast-track their business outcomes?
As fintechs continue to be impacted by several emerging geopolitical and macroeconomic trends, DevOps offers a great way to fast-track the business. Empowering fintechs to build and deliver software solutions quickly and efficiently, DevOps paves the way for:
Rapid innovation
DevOps enables fintechs to inculcate a culture of rapid innovation. By breaking down silos and improving cross-departmental collaboration, it allows fintechs to drive continuous improvement in the products and services they build and offer to their customers. It ensures new code and changes are delivered quickly and reliably, thus giving users a killer user experience.
Increased development velocity
Through better communication and collaboration between operations and development teams, fintechs in Singapore can increase their development velocity. This capability allows them to keep pace more easily with new and emerging trends while also changing direction as and when needed. With DevOps, fintechs can speed up deployment and keep up with customer expectations.
Stronger compliance
Embracing a DevOps culture allows fintechs to identify and address threats more quickly and efficiently. By automating key development and testing processes, they can more easily enforce security and compliance management. DevOps also enables fintechs to shift security left and essentially make security and quality an integral part of the feedback cycle.
Continuous integration
As fintechs explore the world of mergers and acquisitions, DevOps paves the way for continuous integration. Using DevOps tools and processes, developers can frequently merge code changes into a central repository where automated builds and tests run. Such an approach ensures the systems or applications being integrated are not broken whenever new commits are made to the main branch.
Improved reliability
Through a culture of continuous testing, DevOps empowers fintech teams to improve the quality and security of their products. Such testing allows for quicker feedback on the build, thus allowing teams to maintain the stability and reliability of software products and ensuring high availability and performance.
Minimized downtime
With a single minute of downtime proving to be very expensive for fintech companies, DevOps helps curtail the cost of unplanned outages. Using a microservices-based DevOps architecture, fintechs can develop a suite of independently deployable modular services. Such an approach allows them to eliminate the likelihood of a single point of failure while also mitigating the hassle of complex maintenance and deployment delays.
The way forward
The Singapore fintech market is currently valued at $7.8 billion and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7% between 2023 and 2023. With continuous regulatory support, an available pool of skilled talent, and a politically friendly standing in the region, the sector is ripe for innovation and expansion into other markets.
As the fintech space matures, new sub-sectors are emerging. New entrants are constantly shifting gears and exploring spaces for growth. To survive and thrive in this evolving market, fintech companies must embrace and exploit the benefits of DevOps.
Through improved collaboration and a culture of continuous testing and integration, modern DevOps tools offer all that’s needed for fast-growing fintech companies in Singapore to revolutionize how financial services are delivered and consumed. Explore our range of DevOps consulting services to fast-track your fintech business and embark on the road to success.
