Fintech has hit a bottom after plunge in valuations and squeeze on funding, execs and VCs say

cnbc.com:

AMSTERDAM — The financial technology industry is embracing a new normal — with some industry executives and investors believing the sector has reached a «bottom.»

Executives and investors at the Money20/20 event in Amsterdam last week told CNBC that valuations have corrected from unsustainable highs from the industry's heyday in 2020 and 2021.

Long gone are the days when venture capital was flowing into startups with bold ideas and little to show in terms of business metrics and fundamentals.

Iana Dimitrova, CEO of embedded finance startup OpenPayd, told CNBC in an interview at the firm's booth that the market has «recalibrated.»

Embedded finance refers to the trend of technology companies selling financial services software to other companies — even if those companies don't offer financial products themselves.

«Value is now ascribed to businesses that manage to prove there is a solid use case, solid business model,» Dimitrova told CNBC.

«That is recognised by the market, because three, four years ago, that was not necessarily the case anymore, with crazy ideas of domination and hundreds of millions of dollars in VC funding.»

«I think the market is now more sensible,» she added.

Around the show floor of the RAI conference venue last week, banks, payment companies and big technology firms showed off their wares, hoping to reignite conversations with prospective clients after a tough few years for the sector.

Many attendees CNBC spoke with mentioned that the conference hall was a lot lighter in terms of conferencegoers and the pitter-patter of delegates flocking to various stands and booths around the RAI.

Many of the most productive conversations, some attendees CNBC spoke with say, actually happened on the fringes of the