Robert F. Smith, founder and chairman of Vista Equity Partners, has called for a FinTech revolution to help minority-owned SMEs survive through the coronavirus pandemic.
Appearing on NBC News’ Meet The Press, Smith said that contagion is “a pandemic on top of a series of epidemics” and hoped that the next round of stimulus packages in the US would go to supporting small enterprises owned by minorities.
Many of the hardest hit companies in the US are owned by minorities. Smith said he would like to see investments going into community development financial institutions and innovative solutions that to those urban communities not served by large banking institutions.
“We have to take this opportunity to reinvest in our business infrastructure in these small to medium businesses,” Smith said. “In our banking infrastructure so that we can actually emerge out of this even stronger. We have to invest in technology and software so that these ‘capillary banking systems’ are more efficient and they have more access to capital so they can engage with these businesses that are underbanked.”
Vista Equity Partners is no stranger to supporting FinTech companies. In the past, the private equity firm has invested in supply chain automation startup Sonatype, RegTech company ComplySCI, SaaS research platform Bipsync and has bought companies like data protection provider Datto.
Some RegTech and FinTech companies are already trying to help their communities through the crisis. Check out FinTech Global’s list of ten RegTech companies whose services can help you through the coronavirus crisis to find out more.
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