How to Design and Develop a Mobile App for a Fintech Startup?

The increasing dependence on the financial industry has paved the way for fintech apps. For years now, mobile apps have become inseparable parts of banking and financial services all over the world. The emergence and growth of hi-tech solutions across all financial niches have made fintech a driver of growth for the entire industry.

According to a report by Business Research Company, by 2023 the Fintech industry is estimated to have a whopping USD 158014.3 Million growth. As per the same survey report, a whopping 49% of banks and 60% of credit unions consider partnering with fintech solutions as important for their business operations.

Do you want to give your financial operations the hi-tech boost of a robust fintech app? Well, it is not difficult if you really know what it takes to design and develop a powerful fintech app. Here we are going to explain this in a step by step manner.

Know the Most Popular Types of Fintech Apps in the Market

As fintech apps have grown in maturity and have been incorporated into every different kind of financial operation and transaction, some particular types of fintech apps remain more popular than others. Let’s have a brief look at these popular types of fintech apps.

Digital Payment Apps: All the mobile wall wallet apps and digital payment solutions that we use every now and then to carry out transactions, continued to grow in popularity and become a mainstay of our commercial interactions now.

Mobile Banking Apps: The popularity of traditional Net Banking has waned thanks to the emergence of mobile banking apps. These apps allow staying in touch with the financial details and making transactions anytime anywhere just with a few on-screen taps.

Digital Lending Apps: All the fintech apps that allow us to request loans, give instant credit ratings and process documentation are proved to be hassle-free for customers all over the world. People like to check their creditworthiness and process requests through these apps just because they involve the least effort.

Mobile Investment Apps: These fintech apps allow users to browse different investment options, get quick analysis regarding them and go for investment products just with a simple tap on their handheld screens. Thanks to mobile investment and stock trading apps, more people have turned to serious financial investments.

Finance Management Apps: There are also fintech apps that allow users to manage their expenses, make budgets and plan their financial activities in a systematic manner as advised by the financial experts. Many people find these apps extremely helpful for managing their personal finance.

Key Considerations for Monetising Fintech Apps

Now when you have chosen to build a fintech app for any of the popular niches, you also need to consider the ways you can earn revenue from the app. There are different monetisation models for fintech apps that are popular in the market. Let’s explain a few of them.

Subscriptions: As per this model, the app users need to pay a monthly or yearly subscription fee for using the app. Generally, users are provided free or limited access to the app for a brief trial period and after that, they can decide to subscribe to the app.

Transaction Fee: As per this model, for every financial transaction done by using the app, the user needs to pay a transaction fee. This is a successful monetisation model for stock trading, cash exchange and investment apps.

Ads & Referrals: This model can only be successful when the fintech app has a large customer base. Users clicking on ads or opting for referrals can generate revenues for the app.

Marketing Financial and Customer Data: Since fintech apps deal with loads of financial and customer’s personal data rich with financial and marketing insights, it can earn revenue by selling this data. In some countries, making commercial use of this data also faces a lot of restrictions.

Selling Access to Custom API: Payment gateway service providers and some other fintech companies also make money by offering their custom APIs for third-party access for the sake of transactions.

Key Steps in Developing a Fintech App

Now you have a brief idea about the leading types of fintech apps and various monetisation methods available in the market. Let’s now discuss a step by step process to develop a fintech app.

Make Extensive Research

The first and foremost step is to know who is going to use your app and come out with a well-defined user persona representing your ideal target audience. Secondly, evaluate the competitor apps in the market and how can you offer a better value proposition than their apps.

Make a Project Requirement Document

Now that the idea is finalised and you have made audience and competition research, it is time to write down all that you need for building and deploying the app. Starting from the app idea to target OS platforms to the nature of the app such as cross-platform or native to the required technology stack, the document should have everything.

Hire a Development Team

Would you like to build the app in-house or outsource the entire development to an experienced fintech development company? Based upon this choice you need to get on board a team of fintech app developers having the following skills. Many fintech app projects prefer to hire full stack developers to build the app from start to finish with a small development team.

• UI design
• Web Backend development skills such as Node.js
• Native Android or native iOS or cross-platform development skills such as Java or Swift or React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, etc.
• Experience in working in a Test-Driven Environment (TDE)
• Expertise with the most useful APIs for fintech apps
• DevOps engineering

QA Testing

Fintech apps are mostly developed in a test-driven environment (TDE) with scopes of continuous testing and evaluation of app performance, features and user experience. Since the app performance can be critical for holding the reputation of your financial organisation, it is important to take utmost care of debugging and testing for any fintech app project.

Summing It Up

All the key steps that we mentioned corresponding to fintech app development, have been tested and tried across a number of successful fintech app projects. It is advisable to prevent reinventing this time-honoured wheel and stick to the footprints of other successful fintech apps.