You know that annoying “Uber of X” thing that’s going around?

Well, guess who’s the Uber of Fintech? Indulge me.

Uber. That’s who.

Uber is the Uber of Fintech.

Feel free to quote me on that one.

Über Retirement > Regular Retirement

Some months ago the company announced an interesting partnership with the posterboy of online wealth, Betterment.

To get started, drivers using the Uber platform can sign up for traditional or Roth Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) directly through the Uber app. In addition to creating a retirement account, drivers also have the option to create taxable accounts for other investment goals, such as major purchases (e.g., vehicles of their own) and safety net funds. -Betterment

I mean, how is that not great for the drivers? C’mon now. All you need to do to start building your financial security is press a button inside the app that provides your livelihood already. Embedded, son. This is what people need, instead of some sleazy fund hustler with a cheap suit. They need douchey startup guys wearing hoodies. Way better.

Embedded Finance

Anyhoo… This is the future of Finance. Payments inside Chat. Saving inside eCommerce. Banking inside Telco. Instead of forcing tedious banking relationships on you, finance will become a natural part of your life, like it was always meant to.

What kind of difference will this make? Take a look at this here graphic, buddy. Look for the red line. Million’s the unit here, by the way. As in 100,000 million.

Coming up with these use-cases is the challenge. Millennials don’t care about your 0.1% interest rate, they’d rather get paid in data minutes. Or PokéCoins. Whichever requires the least amount of swiping.

Global != Local (nerd for not equal)

So Betterment got the sweetest Fintech deal out there. Hooray for them. What about the rest of us? Do we settle for Lyft? Well, there’s good news. You see, Uber also just announced a partnership with Moneyfarm in the UK. Whaat, you ask?

You can’t just take a U.S. Robo and drop it in rural Indonesia. It isn’t Bear Grylls.

Uber solved this problem twice, and will probably solve it again. The point is that Fintech doesn’t work well as a global platform. Particularly when talking about non-daily finance, say like Wealth or Insurance. Local context, social norms, technological adoption, and regulations make a huge difference. The concept is different. The distribution is different. The marketing is different. The UX is different. Also language.