With a keen eye on the dynamic world of FinTech, Kofi Ndaikate has navigated the intricate landscapes of corporate M&A, from the complexities of blockchain to the nuances of regulatory policy. Today, he joins us to dissect the recent acquisition of Firstance by Harvest, a move that is sending ripples through the European WealthTech sector and signaling a new phase of consolidation and strategic growth.
Firstance is known for placing people at the center of digitalization. How will you integrate this philosophy and its specialized life insurance platform with Harvest’s broader wealth management suite? What are the first practical steps for combining these technological and human strengths?
It’s a fantastic question because it gets to the heart of what makes this deal so compelling. This isn’t just a technical merger; it’s a philosophical one. The first practical step is not simply about integrating code, but about integrating cultures. We’re looking to infuse Firstance’s human-centric DNA into Harvest’s robust wealth management engine. Imagine taking Harvest’s powerful data handling and investment strategy tools and layering Firstance’s intuitive, personalized policy management interface over them. The goal is to make complex wealth planning feel simple and transparent for the end user. We’ll be kicking off with joint workshops to map out the advisor and client journeys from end-to-end, ensuring that the human-first principle guides every new feature and workflow we develop together.
Following the Fincite acquisition for the German market, this deal with Firstance strengthens your Italian presence and expands your coverage to 30 jurisdictions. What is your strategy for harmonizing operations across such diverse regulatory markets, and what specific challenges do you anticipate in this rapid expansion?
Harmonizing across 30 jurisdictions is undoubtedly the biggest challenge, but it’s also our greatest opportunity. Our strategy is built on a “core-and-spoke” model. We maintain a centralized, powerful technology core—the Harvest platform—while leveraging the specialized, local expertise from teams like Fincite in Germany and now Firstance in Italy to handle the specific regulatory “spokes.” The primary challenge is avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach. You can’t just translate a platform; you have to adapt its logic to each country’s unique compliance and reporting standards. This rapid expansion puts pressure on our compliance and legal teams, and it demands a technology architecture that is incredibly flexible and scalable to absorb these regional nuances without breaking.
How will combining Harvest’s data handling and investment strategy tools with Firstance’s policy management platform create a new, unified value proposition for insurers and distributors? Could you walk us through a specific new workflow that this integration will now make possible for your clients?
This combination creates a true, holistic view of a client’s wealth for the first time. Previously, life insurance policies and investment portfolios often lived in separate digital silos. Now, we can create a seamless workflow. For example, an advisor using our new integrated platform could model a client’s retirement plan using Harvest’s investment strategy tools. The platform would automatically identify a potential income gap and then, by pulling in data from the Firstance module, suggest a specific, personalized life insurance product to bridge that gap. The advisor could then generate the policy proposal, manage the subscription, and track its performance all within the same ecosystem. This transforms the advisor’s role from a seller of disparate products to a genuine, single-source wealth planner.
Your stated ambition is to become the leading independent wealth management software publisher in Europe. Beyond geographical expansion, what key product innovations or service enhancements are you planning that will differentiate your combined offerings and help you achieve this leadership position?
Geographical reach is just one piece of the puzzle. Our ambition to be number one hinges on product leadership. The key innovation we’re driving is predictive advisory. By combining Harvest’s sophisticated data handling with the rich policy data from Firstance, we can start to build AI-driven models that anticipate a client’s future financial needs. We’re moving beyond simple CRM and planning tools to create a platform that can proactively suggest actions to an advisor—like recommending a policy adjustment after a major life event or rebalancing a portfolio based on market volatility. This shift from a reactive to a proactive advisory model is what will truly set us apart and define the next generation of wealth management.
What is your forecast for the European WealthTech sector over the next two years?
I believe the next two years will be defined by aggressive consolidation and a flight to integration. The era of standalone, niche FinTech solutions is drawing to a close. We’ll see more strategic acquisitions like this one, where larger platform players acquire specialized providers to fill gaps in their value chain, particularly in areas like insurance and specialized lending. Clients and advisors are tired of juggling multiple systems; they are demanding unified, all-in-one platforms that provide a single, comprehensive view of their financial lives. The winners in this space will be those who can successfully integrate these disparate services into a seamless, intuitive, and truly client-centric experience.
