The women in the Bulgarian fintech sector

Ever since I landed in a fintech startup in Bulgaria, in which 30% of the team were women, I got hooked up with the idea to write about this topic one day. And here I am gathering and analyzing the data of 20 SMEs founded or situated in Bulgaria, looking at the ratio of female employees and in particular the roles they play in the organization.

But before I bring you to the hard facts, I’ll try to manage some expectations by looking into the origin of the Fintech industry and how women in this sector outside Bulgaria have built their reputation so far. Here we go.

Fintech Females in Europe

Over the course of the past 10 years, a strong customer-oriented approach combined with an intuitive, I’d say genuinely user-friendly, product became the key to success for many industries. And still, there is more than one sector that struggled with it.

While traditional banks and trading firms literally failed to adapt, a new industry aroused. In essence, Fintech companies develop computer programs and other technology to support or enable banking and financial services. In the beginning, they were mainly applied at the back-end-systems of established financial institutions. However, most recently “a wave of FinTech innovation is spurring a race to form ecosystems that deliver value to European consumers” and make it one of the fastest-growing areas for venture capitalists, as pointed out by Christopher Schmitz, EY EMEIA Fintech Leader. So far so good.

On the other hand, European consumers are using banking, digital insurance, trading, and personal finance apps every day and with increased frequency. Which makes the fintech industry so important. And while one would expect that this relatively young sector shouldn’t carry the overburden of legacy beliefs, it’s still hard to identify women on the front lines. Or maybe not?

Well, it is not a secret that European fintech has a noticeable lack of women in charge, as research from AltFi showed. Women now make up around 20% of the total number of fintech executive roles globally. But there are some surprises in these statistics, found in a Sifted analysis earlier this year. For instance, it turns out that Spain is the only country that meets the global average for female leaders. Countries like Germany (4%), UK (17%), and Sweden (16%) are clearly lagging behind.

The positive news is that several of the top fintech companies in Europe such as Monzo or Transferwise have already committed to increasing the number of women in leadership positions. On top of that, various governmental and non-governmental activities have been launched to support this. An example is the Swedish SHE Invest fund that invests in Swedish companies with a high proportion of women in leading positions.

Sneеk peek from Bulgaria

Enough about Europe, let’s have a look at things in Bulgaria.

According to Eurostat, there are a little more than 100 000 employed ICT specialists in Bulgaria. Thus, Bulgaria ranks at number 16 in the European Union, one place ahead of one of the fastest emerging IT hubs – Estonia. At the same time, the majority of scientists and engineers in Bulgaria are women – 52% for 2018, which is significantly higher than the average 41% in the EU.

I also looked at 20 fintech startups founded in Bulgaria and included some 3 international ones with hubs here for reference. In the infographics below (or by exploring the raw data here) you can see the overall number of employees, the number of Bulgarian women in the company as well as their percentage of the total employees. I also looked at what was the main area of expertise these women were employed for.

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Women Fintech 1
Infogram

What is the point of view of the female fintech innovators?

In order to hear a first-hand perspective on female participation in the local fintech ecosystem, I reached out to Veselina Markova who is heading Eleven Venture’s relationship management and engagement with fintech companies in Bulgaria and within the region. She also acts as a project manager for the Visa Innovation Program in Bulgaria.

Do you reckon there is enough/should be more space for women in the Fintech sector in Bulgaria? And what do you think is the main advantage of women in Fintech companies in Bulgaria?

Veselina Markova: Bulgaria already has a strong legacy in growing women talent in STEM and finance. Currently, a huge part of the C-level positions in banking and in the rep offices of global tech companies is covered by female leaders and they proved to be very successful – leading with empathy and decency. Fintech itself is the intersection between STEM and finance. However, women still are a very small portion of both of the executive and the operational teams (the latter being with better positions, though). I do not refer here to the ”glass ceiling” – it’s a matter of nurturing female talent (even from a very early age), making fintech knowledge more accessible and attractive to women. Adding more women to that field (including the top-level positions) is a must, I think, however it shouldn’t be for the sake of inclusiveness or meeting trendy quotas. Each individual should be praised for their effective leadership behavior and competencies and that relates to women too. But it is true that women’s leadership style includes more assertiveness, empathy, and care and they are more likely to lead through inspiration. This type of leadership is very applicable to fintech, I believe, since it’s a very complex and competitive space and in order to thrive you need to create sense of purpose and meaning. Women are good at that, right?

How do you think more women can get involved in this field? Do you know of any governmental or non-governmental activities to support this?

The path forward is to give higher visibility to the role models and make them a source of inspiration for the young women interested in STEM and finance. It’s a good example that could shape someone’s career better than any governmental activity or educational program. Second, comes the mentorship and the focused work to unlock the potential of the hidden talent.

Do you see yourself as an advocate for the Fintech space in Bulgaria? Can you give us an example of your daily work exactly?

Every woman, already in touch with fintech, should be more vocal – being through her achievements or aspirations. And I give kudos to each person, platform or media that makes this possible and works towards building more attractiveness to fintech as a vocation.

Women Fintech 2
Infogram

Final words

This doesn’t sound really like a lot of space for women behind the curtains. Worldwide, there are many examples of accomplished women in fintech such as Anne Boden – the founder of Starblink and Sarrah Cherhabil, the Vice President a subdivision of Goldman Sachs. Well, in the Bulgarian FinTech ecosystem, it’s really hard to find women who are equally disrupting the space. As reported in a recent piece, FinTechs in Bulgaria have earned nearly €400m in 2019. No signs that this is going to stop.