From stage to product: applied AI, selective capital, and ecosystems delivering innovation in the financial market

Participating in relevant events such as São Paulo Innovation Week (SPIW), Darwin On The Road, and Impacta Mais brought a clear realization: innovation in the financial market not only remains strong, but has entered a new phase.

If the debate was once dominated by concepts, today the scenario is different. Artificial intelligence, for example, has moved beyond being a promise to consolidate itself as a practical application, with a direct focus on customer experience, operational efficiency, and personalization at scale.

This shift, in itself, would already be relevant. But what really stands out is what is driving this transformation: the strong connection between technology, investment, and ecosystem. In recent months, I have seen this same agenda appear on different stages, which says a lot about the current moment of the market.

At São Paulo Innovation Week (SPIW), the topic was technology and trends. At Impacta Mais, the focus was investment and impact. In common, there was a direct message: the era of innovation as performance is over. The era of innovation as delivery has begun.

This message is especially relevant for the financial sector, where "innovating" has always been an expensive verb: due to regulatory complexity, technological legacy, and reputational risk. And precisely because of that, what is now emerging is a kind of "natural selection," in which the initiatives that survive are those that reduce friction, increase efficiency, and manage to scale.

If innovation has moved beyond discourse, it is worth understanding what is behind this shift. It is in this context that I try to organize some readings on what, in practice, is sustaining this new phase: the evolution of applied artificial intelligence, more selective and demanding capital, and the role of the ecosystem as a real driver of innovation.

Applied artificial intelligence (AI)

At SPIW, artificial intelligence appeared less as futurism and more as a production line: service, personalization, efficiency, and process automation. These are practical and measurable applications. AI has left the lab. And with that, it has lost patience with improvisation.

This is an important shift: the debate has moved from "what can be done" to "what delivers returns and withstands scale." And with that comes the provocation: AI is not a project. AI is an organizational capability. It requires data, processes, governance, and an operational design that does not collapse at the first peak in demand. When that does not exist, the promise of AI becomes just a new way of stacking tools on top of an old problem.

Investment with a filter

The second sign of maturity came from the investment side. The fintech market in Brazil is going through a cycle that combines prudence and sophistication. The number of rounds has dropped significantly compared to 2021, but the amount invested in 2025 still totaled US$ 2.77 billion.

In other words: capital has also changed. The moment now is one of less euphoria and more demand. A strong indicator that money has not disappeared; it has become more selective.

This movement has a practical consequence: fragile models and generic theses lose ground. Solutions that combine traction, execution capacity, operational maturity, and a growth rationale that is less dependent on indefinitely "burning cash" gain relevance. That is why, more and more, the conversation about financial innovation is crossed by themes such as efficiency, governance, and model sustainability, and not only "disruption."

Technology + investment + impact (for real)

Following some of the discussions at Impacta Mais brought an additional layer: it is not enough to innovate; innovation must be directed toward real societal challenges, where AI and capital appear connected to real-world problems, not just speeches or slides.

For the financial market, this works as a warning: the sector has always been a major "engine" of economic infrastructure. When AI and investment come together to solve structural issues (access, productivity, risk, chains, data), innovation stops being peripheral and becomes part of the country's competitiveness design.

Ecosystem is more than networking: it is deal flow infrastructure and accelerated learning

Here is the most important shift, and perhaps the most underestimated one. SPIW reinforced how much open innovation has consolidated itself as a model: collaboration between startups, corporates, and hubs accelerates co-creation and pipeline. But "ecosystem" cannot be treated as a social agenda. If the connection does not turn into a project, partnership, acquisition, contract, or incorporated learning, it becomes just a photo.

That is exactly why Torq's partnership with Darwin Startups to carry out the On The Road project is a useful example: the circuit's proposal is to create in-person meetings across Brazil to bring startups, corporations, and investors closer together, with content, mentoring, and qualified networking, designed to generate relationships and opportunities (not just conversation for conversation's sake).

And when this type of initiative is well designed, it produces objective signals. At its core, ecosystem is this: a continuous engine of sourcing (startups), learning (applied trends), and reputation building (authority). The difference between "being present" and "being relevant" is having a repeatable mechanism to turn meetings into next steps.

What changes for companies (and leaders) that want to innovate in the financial market

1) AI needs ownership and consequence

Without governance and business objectives, AI becomes a cost with the appearance of modernity. The question is not "do we have AI?", but "which process does it improve and which metric does it move?".

2) Open innovation needs method

Partnership for partnership's sake is noise. What works is designing pipeline, criteria, and rhythm; in addition to building trust so that corporation and startup can operate together with clear expectations.

3) Ecosystem needs to be strategy, not agenda

The value of the ecosystem lies in functioning as a living and decentralized network of opportunities, like a kind of real-time "radar" for applied innovation.

How this connects with Torq and Evertec now

Torq's role, as an innovation hub and CVC, is precisely to operate at this intersection: applied technology + connection with startups + investment vision + ecosystem agenda. And this materializes not only in events, but also in market intelligence.

One example is the materials produced by Evertec and also the mappings launched by Torq in partnership with Sling Hub, reinforcing the ambition to turn data into strategic content.

At the end of the day, my opinion is simple: innovation in the financial market has entered an adult phase. It no longer accepts "trial and error" without discipline. It demands governance. It demands execution. It demands an ecosystem with method. And it demands the courage to choose fewer initiatives and deliver better.

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