FROM DISRUPTION TO SUSTAINABLE SCALING: STRATEGY, FUNDING CYCLES, AND SEGMENT HETEROGENEITY IN THE GLOBAL FINTECH INDUSTRY

Abstract

This article develops a structured analytical review of how the global FinTech industry has moved from disruption-led hypergrowth to a more disciplined phase of sustainable scaling. Rather than treating FinTech as a single homogeneous sector, the review differentiates among five domains: payments, digital banking, lending, digital investment and asset management services, and business-to-business financial infrastructure, including banking-as-a-service (BaaS) and embedded finance. The study covers peer-reviewed research and selected institutional evidence published between 2017 and 2024 and examines how funding cycles, strategic adaptation, unit economics, and regulatory capacity interact across sectors and market contexts. The article argues that FinTech disruption should not be reduced to the digitalization of banking. More fundamentally, it involves the unbundling of financial functions, the relocation of customer interfaces, data-driven intermediation, and the modularization of financial infrastructure. The review identifies three interrelated shifts that characterize the sector’s recent transformation: from expansion at any cost to unit economics, from undifferentiated growth to segment-specific strategy, and from regulatory distance to compliance-centered scaling. It further shows that the transition to sustainability is uneven across domains because business models differ in cost structures, funding dependence, operational complexity, and exposure to regulatory risk. The article contributes by integrating disruption, funding dynamics, strategy, and sustainability into a single comparative framework that clarifies both the continuing transformative role of FinTech and the conditions under which that role becomes economically durable.