The fintech sector has experienced a few bumps over the last few weeks, including reports of a high-profile down-round, a funding dip and data suggesting that 22% of fintech jobs are at risk.

But while it’s easy to get morose, there’s still a great deal of optimism in the market. We asked four of Europe’s most active VCs to highlight specific fintechs they think will come out of the lockdown stronger, buoyed by a new landscape.

We had two simple rules: no listing your own portfolio companies, and no self-promotion!

Ruth Wandhöfer, partner at Gauss Ventures

London-based Gauss Ventures is a fintech-specialist fund, backing the likes of Curve.

• FX hedging and payments, like Ebury

Although cross-border business payments have dropped in recent weeks, demand for foreign-exchange hedging and cross-border payments will return and rise as businesses come out of lockdown.

Santander-backed Ebury is one to watch here. It caters to small and medium-sized companies wanting to do cross border payments and operates across 20 countries. The company also just launched Ebury Instant, enabling clients to make real-time payments. A large relation management team of more than 500 people also allows them to make customers sticky and loyal in these times.

• Regtechs, like Apiax

Digital business-to-business (B2B) propositions that cut costs, ensure compliance, and help accelerate sales will fare well. Apiax, a Swiss regtech, is a good example of this. The startup builds and offers tools that transform complex financial regulations into digital compliance rules, which are constantly up-to-date and verified. This can be integrated directly into wealth and asset managers through an API, boosting automation. Their technology provides legal and compliance teams with full visibility of their clients and control. It is also run by a very experienced team of ex-bankers and already boasts a great client base, including large financial institutions and insurers.

• Digital core financial platforms, like Nucoro

There is ongoing demand for digital operating platforms that can cut cost and improve efficiency in banking, wealth management and insurance. So enabling these sectors to install ready-made digital solutions rather than having to build their own is particularly lucrative in times of accelerated digitisation.

In this vein, UK-based Nucoro helps financial organisations to build out investment management propositions quicker and more effectively. It offers a range of digital tools as white-label solutions that enable advisers to onboard and engage with their clients more easily. This stretches from behavioural data analytics, portfolio configuration, compliance checks and management reporting.