Tecnofinanza e Finanza Alternativa: Idee per una nuova definizione di "FinTech"

[Machine translation] Although the concept of FinTech — or FinTech — is widely used by financial operators and in the scientific literature, the absence of a unique definition generates possible difficulties in qualifying the phenomenon. In this work, we propose a new definition of FinTech based on a textual analysis aimed at categorizing companies financed by investments in equity by Venture Capital (VC) and Private Equity (PE) investors. Through a textual analysis, we classify investments in VC and PE between FinTech and other types of transactions, exploiting qualitative and quantitative information from projects financed in equity around the world. This new approach to the definition of FinTech is then used to analyze the sectoral, geographical and temporal distribution of equity investments. Finally, let's study the most recent trends in the FinTech phenomenon, through an empirical analysis at a global level. The econometric results indicate that the uncertainty and the potential increase in the risk of investments generated by the pandemic are accompanied by a small drop in the volume of investments in FinTech, while we find less significant effects in terms of the number of transactions, especially in the early stages of the pandemic. These results suggest that VC and PE operators continued to finance companies in the FinTech sector during the pandemic, while limiting the volumes invested in order to reduce risk in periods of strong uncertainty.