Fintech innovation can make an impact. Not just as a toolkit for managing your operations faster, but as inspiration for new products and features. Ones that meet the demands of digital-first customers. Wherever you are in your process, learning about these five innovations can sharpen your focus and open up new revenue streams.

These innovations fall into three categories: infrastructure, customer-facing features, and revenue-expansion plays.

1. Build API-first, not in a silo

APIs are the building blocks of scalable infrastructure that will make you adaptable to new technology and increasingly interconnected digital tools. If you build with APIs in mind, you can plug into partners, payment processors, banks, CRMs, whatever you can dream of next and whatever the next stage requires.

And the trend is undeniable. According to Grand View Research, the UK API marketplace is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 12.7 percent through 2030, reaching over USD 3 billion.

You can’t afford to build in a silo. Think of APIs not just as backend decisions but as product features that will set you up for success and scaling fast. Your future integrations, even ones you can’t imagine yet, depend on what you do now.

2. Embedded finance – the key to new revenue streams

Imagine you’re running a marketplace. Your customers trust you and login daily. Why not enhance the customer experience by offering them instant payments, savings wallets, or short-term credit lines right inside your app?

That’s what embedded finance can do for you: weave financial services directly into your product. In the UK, GlobeNewswire reports that embedded finance is expected to grow by 27.6 percent annually, reaching $7.76 billion this year and $18.92 billion by 2029.

Think Stripe issuing cards for platforms, or Shopify offering cash advances to merchants. But this isn’t just for billion-dollar companies. APIs from providers like Weavr, Railsr, and Unit make it possible for startups to embed payments, lending, or accounts. Start by identifying one moment in your user journey where money movement happens. Can you own that moment? Can you offer it more smoothly than the bank?

3. Robo-treasury for SMEs

With the rise of robo-advisors, even small businesses and solo entrepreneurs can access automated wealth management, reserve optimization, and portfolio rebalancing.

Platforms like Nutmeg and Moneyfarm now partner with digital banks to let users invest directly from mobile apps. Behind the scenes, AI is scanning the markets, optimizing tax exposure, and auto-balancing portfolios without any human input. They aren’t fool-proof, but the technology is only improving and analysing data is something AI excels in.

Imagine you’re a small operation: two founders and a dog. Smart investment with AI can make a difference in a crucial moment. Instead of rotting in a current account, you can earn enough for that one extra contractor during a crunch quarter. On that scale, it really does make a difference. Even a 3% yield can shift your Q4 hiring plan.

With that in mind, it becomes clear how robo-driven cashflow tools could be part of your own product, especially if you serve SMEs managing budgets, invoices, or subscriptions.

4. AI Chatbots and financial co-pilots

If you’re a small team, you don’t have time to answer the same questions every week. Nor do your potential end users. That’s where financial chatbots and AI copilots come in, instant help, no queue, no burnout.

Bank of America’s Erica handles 98 percent of user queries without the need to escalate to human intervention. That’s not just good customer service, it’s an invaluable time-saver. And it creates space for human agents to handle higher-value conversations or smaller companies to handle more users without sacrificing quality. It doesn’t need to be huge. Even a simple chatbot can free up hours for a team to focus on more complex tasks.

The best part is: these bots are only getting smarter. They analyze spending, detect anomalies, and guide users with tailored advice, from flagging unutilised subscriptions to forecasting overdrafts. That’s more than answering queries, they are becoming refined enough to proactively help.

You don’t need to build a full chatbot from scratch. Services like Intercom, Ada, or even open-source frameworks can help you prototype fast. That means you can focus on one use case and iterate from there.

5. Real-time dashboards

When your cash runway changes often, you need visibility, not a spreadsheet you didn’t have time to update last Tuesday.

Real-time dashboards give you control over finances, moment to moment. One example is setting up a custom Airtable dashboard that combines Stripe, accounting and Google Sheets into a live view of your cash position. And it’s part of a larger movement. UK SMEs are set to spend £60.3 billion on new technology in 2024 alone, with automation and data tools leading the way. You don’t need to wait for off-the-shelf tools to catch up. You can build lightweight dashboards on top of tools like Retool, Supabase, or even Google Looker Studio, and embed them right in your product.

Why does this matter now?

The future of finance is fast, modular, digital-first, and backed with clever use of AI. Whether you’re optimizing your own business or shipping features for thousands of users, these new technologies are more than hype. They can make a real difference.

In an over saturated market, it’s not enough to wait for the perfect tool. You can build them for your own internal needs or as the latest app on the market.