One Fintech Nation: Uniting the Fintech Kingdom
Today marks the first of our brand new mini-series in collaboration with Tech Nation. We’re launching One Fintech Nation, a series looking beyond London and uniting the fintech kingdom. For too long the UK fintech scene has been viewed (perhaps unfairly) as very London-specific, when it extends beyond London’s borders and to all the countries that make up the United Kingdom.
In our podcast we pop the London fintech bubble and show you the groundbreaking work being done across the nation. You can/should/need/have to listen to it here.
When you think fintech you’ll usually think of the major global hubs; London, Singapore, Hong Kong and San Francisco but while those areas all deliver amazing fintechs there’s plenty happening outside of them. Tech Nation themselves are keen to highlight this and have this week launched their Fintech Programme to help UK fintechs start and scale up and down the country.
Just to give you a taste of what’s going on in the podcast, I’m giving you the tiniest of sneak peeks at what’s ahead when you finally download it.
London has done an excellent job of attracting fintech talent to the UK. There’s no doubt about it, the city was recently crowned tech unicorn capital of the world. But there’s a renewed commitment to improving the fintech focus. At the International Fintech Conference in March, the government announced new fintech envoys to the North, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. But just having envoys isn’t going to magically make the work appear. Truth is, the rest of the UK has been delivering customer solutions and generally improving fintech for a long time. There just hasn’t been much noise about it.
While London attracts talent both internationally and from across the nation, the fintech spaces in other parts of the country have a more local focus. Atom Bank does a great job of gaining regional talent through their university connections and tapping that talent pool before it can travel down to London. Located in the North, Atom are able to demonstrate and commit a real link to the area.
All the Humility in the World
London has done an excellent job of attracting fintech talent to the UK. There’s no doubt about it, the city was recently crowned tech unicorn capital of the world. But there’s a renewed commitment to improving the fintech focus. At the International Fintech Conference in March, the government announced new fintech envoys to the North, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. But just having envoys isn’t going to magically make the work appear. Truth is, the rest of the UK has been delivering customer solutions and generally improving fintech for a long time. There just hasn’t been much noise about it.
There's a humility in the North, and not just the North, but, Wales, Belfast, and the Southwest. They're slightly shy about their capabilities. - Chris Sier, Fintech Envoy for the North.Our podcast shines a light on these areas, shows you what they’re doing and why they have no reason to be shy about anything.
Local Love
While London attracts talent both internationally and from across the nation, the fintech spaces in other parts of the country have a more local focus. Atom Bank does a great job of gaining regional talent through their university connections and tapping that talent pool before it can travel down to London. Located in the North, Atom are able to demonstrate and commit a real link to the area.
Creating something for the region, and creating economic growth within that region, was a real intent of the original founders for Atom - Lisa Wood, CEO Atom BankThat commitment to the area is part of what got Atom Bank their Angel investment and now they’re an integral part of the local financial ecosystem. Tech Nation and 11:FS are collaborating to bring you the latest and greatest insight into the UK fintech space across the entire country. Across the series, we’re going to be taking a look at the under the radar success stories across the UK - and learn how the UK can work better together as one united fintech kingdom. We will explore how UK fintech can utilise a cross-regional network effect to come together as a whole to tackle issues such as financial inclusion, financial literacy and how to survive and thrive as a leader on the international fintech scene in a post-Brexit world. So, what are you waiting for? Go listen to episode one now. We’ll have even more podcasts with Tech Nation on Fintech Insider in the very near future so get ready to burst the London bubble once and for all.