Industry Disruption, Explained

All industries face disruption — some sooner than others.

Two of my favorite case studies? Telcos and Banks.        

At the dawn of the millennium, they were the undisputed rulers of the economy — Banks and Telcos were the Kings on the Iron Throne.

A few tried to innovate, but most held their ground, confident in their dominance.

Then came the challengers.

Fast forward to today, and the once-scrappy outsiders are becoming the new incumbents. Last week brought two telling further signals:

• Revolut is set to acquire Banco Cetelem, a small Argentinian lender, as part of a bold push into Latin America.
• Starling Bank is eyeing U.S. expansion—either by securing a banking license or acquiring a mid-tier bank.

Beyond geographical expansion, digital banks are now moving into one of the more mature and capital-intensive segments of financial services: the mortgage market—a space worth over €8 trillion in Europe alone. Revolut and Monzo are actively exploring offerings in the homeownership space, while N26 in Germany and Bunq in the Netherlands have already rolled out mortgage products in recent years.

If successful this shift marks a clear evolution from transactional and consumer banking toward longer-term financial infrastructure, indicating that neobanks are no longer just disruptors—they are becoming full-spectrum financial institutions.

These aren’t just startups anymore. They’re consolidating power.

Conclusion:

Like in Game of Thrones, the Iron Throne never stays warm for long. Disruption doesn’t crown the bold—it punishes the complacent.

The real question isn’t who’s playing to win, but who failed to act to avoid losing the throne.

PS: The image below was generated by ChatGPT. It’s not exactly a masterpiece—and it took a fair amount of struggle (some of it pretty entertaining). You can check out the full interaction in a dedicated post.