The Smarter Path to Scaling Fintech: Behavioural Science Meets Commercial Strategy

Guest post by Ariel Cecchi PhD, CEO, Behavioural Finance Consulting

Why Fintech Growth Stalls

Fintech is one of the fastest-moving industries in the world. New products launch every month, investors fuel ambitious targets, and customer adoption often takes off quickly.

But for many scale-ups, that early momentum slows. User growth plateaus, customer acquisition costs climb, and revenues fail to meet expectations. The challenge isn’t a lack of innovation — it’s the gap between what companies build and how customers actually behave in the market.

Scaling fintech requires more than clever features or bigger marketing budgets. It demands a smarter path, one that aligns the realities of human decision-making with the rigour of commercial strategy.

That’s why Behavioural Finance Consulting, in partnership with Ravelyn Consulting, has developed frameworks like the Market Activation Service and the Revenue Growth Accelerator — to bring these two worlds together in practice.

Scaling with confidence doesn’t mean spending more. It means aligning your product, your strategy, and your customers’ reality — to create growth that lasts.

The Growth Plateau Problem

So why do so many fintechs stall on their growth journey? For three main reasons:

1. Weak product–market fit at scale. What resonates with early adopters doesn’t always work for mainstream customers.

2. Behavioural blind spots. Too many strategies assume customers act in their own best interests, but in reality, financial behaviour is shaped by limited product understanding, cognitive shortcuts, emotional decision-making, money-related anxiety, and scepticism towards financial services.

3. Fragmented execution. Fintechs often have great products but lack pricing clarity, an effective customer journey, clear communication, or coordinated go-to-market strategies.

Example: A payments app might attract 100,000 users in its first year through early-adopter buzz. But as it moves beyond that initial wave, conversion rates can drop by as much as 40%. The cause is rarely the technology itself. More often, it stems from a combination of factors: pricing signals that don’t match perceived value, complicated onboarding and user flows, a lack of transparent communication that undermines credibility, and weak customer support or engagement. Together, these issues create friction that prevents users from staying loyal to the product.

The Missing Link: Behaviour Meets Strategy

Growth doesn’t stall because fintech leaders lack ambition or creativity. It stalls because strategies are often built in silos, with vital elements disconnected from each other.

On their own, each discipline leaves critical gaps:

• Behavioural insight without commercial rigour may produce products that attract users but fail to convert or monetise effectively.

• Commercial strategy without behavioural understanding may look solid on spreadsheets but leads to high churn, weak adoption, and wasted spend.

The smarter path is to combine both — building strategies that are not only evidence-based but also proven in practice with real customers.

The solution lies in uniting two complementary disciplines:

• Behavioural science decodes why customers hesitate, how they weigh trade-offs, and what builds or undermines trust.

• Commercial strategy ensures pricing, positioning, and go-to-market models are competitive, scalable, and financially sustainable.

Together, they create a growth framework that is both human-centred and commercially effective — the foundation fintechs need to scale with confidence.

Framework 1: Market Activation Service

For fintechs entering new regions or preparing for expansion, market entry is a moment of both opportunity and risk.

The Market Activation Service, developed by Behavioural Finance Consulting in partnership with Ravelyn Consulting, addresses this challenge head-on. It integrates market due diligence, competitor mapping, and readiness assessment with behavioural insight into customer motivations.

Key components include:

• Market analysis & opportunity sizing. Identifying where the real growth potential lies.

• Persona-based value propositions. Crafting messages that resonate with specific customer segments.

• Go-to-market readiness scorecards. Testing for gaps in compliance, sales enablement, and operations before launch.

Example: A lending platform expanding into Ireland could stumble over two hidden obstacles: a regulatory requirement overlooked in product design and messaging that leans too heavily on speed rather than trust. Left unaddressed, these issues can delay approval and weaken customer adoption. By tackling them before launch, the platform not only avoids costly setbacks but also builds a smoother path to market uptake.

Framework 2: Revenue Growth Accelerator

What about fintechs already operating in the market but struggling to reignite momentum?

The Revenue Growth Accelerator service also co-developed by Behavioural Finance Consulting and Ravelyn Consulting provides a focused, rapid-delivery programme to identify where growth is stalling and how to fix it.

Core elements include:

• Product workflow & UX audit to pinpoint where users drop off.

• Product–market fit assessment to align features with real customer needs.

• Competitor benchmarking & pricing strategy to ensure differentiation and commercial viability.

• Behavioural messaging optimisation to connect campaigns with actual decision drivers.

Example: A B2B insurtech at Series B may find growth stalling despite strong technology. An audit often reveals friction points: an onboarding flow that overwhelms new users and pricing tiers that confuse rather than guide, driving high drop-off rates. Simplifying the journey and shifting to a value-based pricing model can quickly reverse the trend—boosting retention by double digits within a single quarter.

The Smarter Path Forward

Fintech isn’t short on talent, funding, or ambition. What it often lacks is a joined-up approach that bridges the gap between how customers really behave and what commercial strategies demand. Too many firms try to grow by doubling down on product features, marketing spend, or sales headcount — but without addressing the underlying disconnects, results are rarely sustainable.

The smarter path forward is not about doing more, but about doing it differently. By combining behavioural science with commercial strategy, fintechs can design products and business models that resonate with customers and deliver measurable financial outcomes. This dual lens reduces execution risk, strengthens adoption, and creates momentum that can be sustained through each stage of growth.

It’s an approach that doesn’t just benefit founders and product teams. For investors and strategic partners, fintechs that understand customer behaviour and align it with strong commercial foundations represent a lower-risk, higher-confidence growth story. Embedding this mindset makes companies more resilient, more attractive to backers, and better positioned to thrive in competitive markets. This brings us to the bigger picture.

Looking Ahead

Ultimately, growth isn’t just about acquiring more users. It’s about creating value that people understand, trust, and commit to, while building a business model that proves resilient in the eyes of customers, partners, and investors alike.

Fintechs that embrace both behavioural science and commercial strategy will not only accelerate their growth today but also build the foundations for long-term success tomorrow.