Fintech Fuse – A Festive FinTech Fusion, preparing for 2020!
Just time to fit in a final fusion blog for 2019 before clocking off for 2019 and the festive holiday.
A frantic run in to the festive period has meant I’ve had little time to keep up with a regular blog so please forgive random rambling of the last couple of months!
Festive Community
Very fitting that the festive spirit was very much in the air at the FinTech Scotland Fusion event with the community last week at one of Edinburgh’s most popular fintech hubs, The Green Room!
Wonderful to see so many of fabulous fintech leaders and entrepreneurs join us for a glass of wine or two for the occasion magnificently hosted by special friend Sarah Ronald. Big thanks to the brilliant Stuart, Darren and LendingCrowd team for their generous Christmas hospitality.
A similar uplifting spirt was evident at the Modulr fintech community event the previous month, recognising the terrific progress by the team and the exciting plans ahead. It was super to see so many of the fintech community there for the evening.
The diversity of Scotland fintech community is one of the core strengths and engenders amazing collaboration and innovation.
For example, as shown in the support provided by how the community in getting behind the MoneyMatix crowdfunding exercise recently, inspiring to see.
Furthermore, collaboration boosted by fintechs coming to Scotland from all parts of the world.
For example, meetings over recently with Alex and Monika of Polydigi (Hong Kong), Gopal of BlackArrow , Shendon and Michael of Gobbill as well as Izzy and Paul of Veriluma (all from Australia) reinforce the global make up of the community.
This was a key theme I was able to share in presenting at the FinTech World Forum in London last month to a very diverse global leadership audience which I am told further reinforces Scotland position as an International fintech centre attracting entrepreneurs and innovators.
Meeting our close European partners has also been a key activity over last few months and we are excited to join eight other fintech centres across Europe in the Discovery Collaboration Programme connecting firms with opportunities across our continent.
In addition, it has been great to meet with senior leaders from the French Embassy to talk about collaboration opportunities.
Our ongoing close engagement and friendship with colleagues across our European continent continues to be a key focus in demonstrating to Scotland remains very much open to shared innovation.
Mickael’s ongoing value leadership in building our global FinTech connectivity to support the community in Scotland continues to play an important role.
Alongside this it has been brilliant to work with our super Scottish Development International colleagues to welcome fast growing fintech firms from Hong Kong , Canada, China, Korea all looking at Scotland as a future home for their innovations
Massive thanks to the fabulous Andrew Wykes, Kirsty Russell, Sarah Kenrick and team at Lloyds Banking Group for recently hosting the Hong Kong and Canadian delegations and arranging the festive market to add to the fintech atmosphere in December .
All of this is reflected in the brilliant examples of the FinTech community in the Herald Business supplement a couple of weeks ago. Terrific writing Kim McAllister very much appreciate your engagement and coverage of fintech developments in Scotland.
Kim and I had the opportunity to discuss these developments with other leaders one evening recently at a session organised by Malcolm Buchanan , Mike Crow and the RBS team .
The impactful innovation and leadership by Kristen and the RBS team is hugely valuable to the significant progress and we very much appreciate their ongoing collaboration and support. It is also great to see exciting initiatives such as the exciting Accelerator Hub in central Edinburgh
Festive Collaboration
Collaboration very sits at the heart of innovation progress across Scotland and one of the most memorable examples of this was the recent Glasgow University FinTech Society challenge event, it was also one of my best FinTech Friday’ evenings ever!!
Awesome leadership by Elisabetta, Andrea, Davide and the Society committee bringing together the energetic and diverse students, terrific academic leaders John Finch and Dominic Chalmers, fintech entrepreneurs Sustainably, heavyweights Deloitte and the innovative Chris O’Neill of M3.
Wow, what an evening of fintech, wine, curry and yes a Jazz band with entertaining presentation interlude by the fabulous Lou Smith and a half time fill in by me!!
Back home after midnight with fintech jazz’ ringing in my ears but the evening said everything that is so special about the fintech movement with focus on people and a festive atmosphere.
The festive collaboration was also very much in evident at the FinTech National Network investor pitch day’ at Level 39 in London this week.
Terrific work by the super Hayley, Peter and the Innovate Finance team in bringing together investors to hear from fintech firms from around the UK. Thank you Charlotte Crosswell for fabulous day, super atmosphere and the ongoing leadership in 2019.
Very proud of the presentations by Nick of Edinburgh based Zumo and Kyle of Glasgow based Financial Cloud in articulating their compelling and innovative fintech propositions
Also, really great to catch up with fintech comrades from Wales, Northern Ireland, North and West as well as Tom Helm from DIT as we all reflected on our shared ambitions for fintech and the collaboration opportunities in 2020.
The investor pitch event followed on from the very first FinTech National Network event in Glasgow back in October.
Bringing together the Scottish fintech community with peers and stakeholders from across the UK was one of the many big highlights for 2019.
The event saw Alex of Encompass, Laura of Amiqus, James of Direct ID and Andrew of Soar from the Scottish community share compelling stories about how they are developing their FinTech proposition to make a real difference.
Also, excellent presentations from the very engaging FCA team Laura Navaratnam and Steven McWhirter as well as Kevin Telford on sharing the impact the world of open finance can have on peoples lives.
Very fitting the event was hosted in the University of Strathclyde which is leading the awesome development of the Glasgow City Innovation District of which fintech is a growing and significant cluster as brilliantly covered by Eleanor Shaw.
Many thanks to the University and City Council for supporting this significant event along with Glynn Robinson and the super team from BJSS team.
Listening to great presentations from Andrew of Northern Ireland, Gavin of Wales , Julian of West and Dan of North on the day reminded us all that we can learn so much from each other as we develop our respective FinTech communities.
The wonderful finale of the day was a focus on people inclusion and diversity with such valuable insights coming from the panel of Lou Smith, Elisabetta from Glasgow University, Laura and Nicola
It was a privilege to co-host the day with my Ant and Dec’ partner, Chris Sier who was as engaging as always in bringing alive the importance of the FinTech innovation for everyone.
I know next year will bring even more wider international collaboration opportunities and it was great to chat this through with Phil, Rory and Isaac of FinTech Alliance over a few glasses on Tuesday evening . Thanks guys, looking to hit the ground running early next year.
Festive Innovation
The run up to the festive period has certainly fueled fintech innovation examples with the community covering a very broad range of themes
For example, it was great to have the inspiring entrepreneurs Phil from Castlight and Manu from Inbest come along to the FinTech Scotland Citizen Panel to share the positive impact of fintech innovation.
The Panel plays a crucial role in identifying how we can collaboratively address issues such as financial inclusion and tackling problem debt amongst citizens working with the third sector, universities, Government and regulator.
A huge thank you to colleague Nicola Anderson for leadership on this area and privilege to work with Nicola and have the secondment to FinTech Scotland extended for another year from the FCA.
More real innovative fintech examples were on show at the University of Edinburgh Business School non executive director course one Thursday evening recently.
This again was a real pleasure for me as I was joined by three absolutely inspiring leaders for the evening to share real life case studies on the leadership needs of growing fintech enterprises.
Many thanks again to the magnificent three, Colin of Float, Sonia of Level E and Aleks of newly formed Exizent for such engaging evening with the senior leaders from across Scotland .
Thank you also to John Amis of the University as well as Ailsa and Judy of FWB Park Brown for the opportunity to put fintech in the non-executive programme for senior leaders.
This week the festive innovation extended to the world of crypto assets and I was very proud to invite three leaders in this field to join me at the Scottish Government Working Group with the Lord Advocate and Lord Hodge.
Fantastic contributions to the discussion on the opportunity by Paul of Zumo, Christine of Women’s Coin, Richard of QWallets , thank you and more to come on this in 2020 especially in demonstrating fintech as a force for good.
This was also very much brought alive during the FinTech session I was invited to host at the Global Ethical Finance Conference at the RBS campus a couple of months ago.
Fantastic examples shared by Georgia of Tumelo and Christine of Women’s Coin on the role of FinTech innovation having an important social impact.
Another area getting some good focus from fintech innovation at present is cyber security and financial crime being led by Nicola.
The joint event recently with Police Scotland and National Crime Agency was very insightful. Many thanks to Leanne of Nucleus, Rachel and Dave of Amiqus and Mike of Modulr for their valuable engagement and leadership on this.
The FinTech collaboration initiatives extend across the public sector and it was brilliant to witness first hand the progress being made in collaboration with the Scottish Government Digital team.
Fantastic to see this demonstrated with Minister Kate Forbes by the fabulous Trish, Hugh, Carron, Mike and terrific teams last week, very much looking forward to the collaboration progress in 2020.
Fintech was very much on show at the CanDo Innovation Summit recently in Glasgow and it was terrific to be part of an amazing event with the other exciting industry clusters driving new initiatives.
The fintech examples were brought alive in the auditorium by Loral and Eishel of Sustainably, Colin of Float and Duncan of Modulr and it was a privilege to host the showcase.
Festive Cluster
The Glasgow fintech cluster is very much going from strength to strength in so many ways and it was great to share the progress with the City Economic Leadership team a few weeks ago, thank you Mark Napier, JP Morgan for the opportunity and continuing collaboration
The action packed FinTech Scotland partnership with University of Strathclyde team is giving valuable momentum to the fintech initiatives and we are really excited about progressing in 2020 as part of the City Innovation District.
Thank you to Eleanor Shaw, David Hillier and terrific team for valuable leadership on this
Building on this with great sessions with innovative leaders Samantha Bedford and Virgin Money team, Tara Foley and Bank of Scotland team, David Ratcliffe, Stuart Brown and Barclays team as well as Ali Law and Paul Gallagher of Royal London provide great new collaboration opportunities for 2020.
Sharing these Scottish fintech developments with a worldwide audience is always on the agenda and it was great to join Alex Ford of Encompass on a podcast along with Lou Smith.
Thank you Cheri Burns for making this happen and the opportunity to share the message. Also, very best wishes to Alex has she moves to New York to expand the Encompass innovation on the other side of the Atlantic.
Of course, the fintech cluster is developing across Scotland and it has been great to work with inspiring Jane Morrison-Ross, chief executive of ScotlandIS along with fabulous Svea, Katy and Ciara on joint initiatives to develop the digital economy. This is a core focus for us in 2020 with much more to come!
The fintech cluster developments require broad collaboration such as with ScotlandIS and Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce who provide valuable leadership in the Scottish economy.
Great working with the super Liz McAreavey, on the Scottish and international opportunity.
In addition, its been fantastic working in collaboration with our colleagues at Scottish Enterprise and the fintech network integrator team, Vivolution, making the Scottish cluster embrace the innovation opportunities.
Working with the University of Edinburgh team on a range of opportunities means the fintech cluster in the capital is going to go from strength to strength in 2020.
The Wayra cohort in Bayes , led by the brilliant Charlotte Waugh is a terrific example of this and it is great to see the progress by James of Xpand and Evangelos of Ocyan
Then wider across Edinburgh, great to catch up with Paul, founder of Inifinity Works who have recently set up in Edinburgh as well as Scott and Raymond from Exception to talk through collaboration opportunities. These are just two examples of many that make life so fascinating in Scotland’s developing fintech sector
We have been running hard to keep up with the fintech momentum across the whole cluster in Scotland and Shery has done an amazing job in keeping us organised between meetings , speaking engagements and project sessions throughout the year.
Festive Running
I’ve also been fortunate enough to maintain my running addiction during this last frantic few months of 2019, infact it seems to have helped my racing performance!
The highlight being the recent Loch Ness Marathon with my best time in nearly three years at 3 hours 16mins which is giving me great hope for my times next year!!
This was followed up a couple of weeks ago with a 1 hour 32mins for the Water of Leith Half Marathon which also left me buzzing.
As with fintech developments in Scotland, if I can keep this race momentum into next year then we could be hitting some new peaks results in 2020!!However, for now it is time to relax and enjoy the festive holidays with my very special family as well as a bit of running around the roads and paths of Scotland whilst having a few small dreams on what the year ahead will bring. Until then…..
Scottish fintech GiftRound is Fundraising
The Scottish Fintech startup GiftRound is seeking to raise £75,000 (SEIS Pre approved) investment through Crowdcube.
www.crowdcube.com/giftround
Organising a group gift by passing the traditional card and brown envelope around the office is not efficient or effective in an increasingly cashless society. What’s more teams are frequently spread over different locations, home working or overseas.
GiftRound is a new online service that is changing the way people collect money for gifts. GiftRound provides a quick, hassle-free and secure way to collect money for gifts in the workplace and with friends & family. GiftRound customers can easily create a collection, invite people to contribute
and purchase a gift.
Since its launch GiftRound has received nearly 4000 contribution into 350 successful group collections.
“I found using GiftRound so much easier than collecting money for gifts before, particularly as my colleagues are based across the country. I love the transparency and it not going through my own bank account. I’ll be using it again and recommending it to others.”
RBS Office Manager
“GiftRound made the collection for Xmas gifts for our class teachers super smooth this year. Thank you! Have recommended the service to other classes at the school and I’ll be looking into using this at work too.”
Parent collecting for Primary School Teacher’s Christmas gift.
The initial focus for GiftRound was workplace teams in the UK that wanted to celebrate together and show that they care. However, GiftRound has also proven very popular with parents buying a gift for primary school teachers and friends getting together to buy a special wedding gift.
GiftRound is 100% free to use and generates its revenue when customers purchase gifts, gift vouchers or experiences from quality retailers that GiftRound has a relationship with via the GiftRound Store.
GiftRound is seeking to raise £75,000 through Crowdcube to improve the user experience of the platform and integrate a GiftRound Store to provide customers a seamless experience.
www.crowdcube.com/giftround
Financial wellbeing and the impact in the workplace
Photo by energepic.com from Pexels
Financial wellbeing ”“ the theme of Talk Money Talk Pensions Week 2019 ”“ is about feeling secure and in control of your money as well as being able to manage day-to-day while working towards a healthy financial future. We think it’s important to not only consider how individuals can build their own financial resilience wellbeing but also how employers can support their staff in developing lasting financial capability strategies.
A recent report from Natwest (https://www.moneyadvicescotland.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=f4148ec3-ec0e-468b-ae07-7f615fc34548) recommends that employers should, at a minimum, include financial capability training and support as a standard part of their employee induction process, and a growing body of evidence shows that there are clear benefits of investing in this for all employees at all stages of their career. The importance of financial education at work and the benefits it has for both employees and employers is why we developed Money Works ”“ a programme that exists to promote financial wellbeing in the workplace and provide vital financial inclusion skills for employees and apprentices across Scotland.
Research has found that levels of financial capability and wellbeing very greatly from person to person. An individual’s salary, age, or employment history does not necessarily correlate to their confidence or ability to manage their earnings or their state of financial wellbeing. It therefore makes sense to offer financial wellbeing support to all employees.
The arguments for providing financial wellbeing support in the workplace are strong; firstly, the impact of poor financial wellbeing on productivity is significant. Anxiety about finances leads to worse mental, physical, and social wellbeing which can affect attendance and performance at work. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that money worries were the biggest source of stress for UK employees.
According to research from Barclays:
-Almost half of employees worry about their finances
-1 in 5 lose sleep worrying about their finances
-1 in 5 said that worrying about their finances affects their work
-Almost 80% of employees are not satisfied with the efforts of their employer when it comes to managing their finances
This evidence shows how great an impact an individual’s financial wellbeing has on their overall wellbeing, and how intrinsically linked money worries and work are. Both employers and employees agree that if employees had access to help and guidance, they would have better control over their money and feel better prepared for future planning. If this support is available in the workplace, employers can help ensure their staff are better prepared to respond to financial unpredictability, in turn alleviating some of the pressure points that lead to absence and stress.
One of the aims of Money Works is to provide a reliable, flexible source of financial guidance. Participation in our financial wellbeing in the workplace sessions benefits both employees and employers. Employees gain vital financial resilience skills and get access to resources that research shows is needed and wanted. Employers benefit from a more motivated and productive workforce, as well as highlighting them as an employer that is committed to investing in employees’ overall wellbeing.
Our Financial Capability team designs custom workshops and works with employers to meet the needs of their staff, and workshops are delivered in the workplace.
Possible topics include:
-Planning for retirement
-Day-to-day financial management
-In-work benefits
-Savings (including emergency funds, ISAs, saving for a deposit)
-Insurance (including life insurance)
-Managing credit card debt
-Understanding taxes and payslips
These topics are based on research of what employees would benefit from knowing more about. For example, 22 million working-age adults don’t feel that they know enough about pensions to make decisions about saving for retirement, so we offer sessions on this.
If you’d like to learn more about Money Works, contact financialcapability@moneyadvicescotland.org.uk or complete this form https://www.moneyadvicescotland.org.uk/forms/money-works-enquiry
Edinburgh based fintech crowdfunding for new app
Financial education Scottish fintech MoneyMatiX is launching a fundraising campaign to raise £12,000.
This campaign will support the launch of its KUZAKASH APP using the RBS Back Her Business scheme which pledges to match fund up to 50% of their crowdfunding target. MoneyMatiX was launch by two highly motivated and driven mums passionate about making money management accessible to all.
Financial habits are becoming ever more complex with young people turning to adults for financial guidance but finding them ill-equipped at money management. This led MoneyMatix to develop KUZAKASH, a family finance management APP promoting meaningful financial interactions between children, parents & teachers.
Kuzakash uses visualisation tools to make financial goal setting fun and achievable. Both adults and children can set, track and contribute towards their goals which are used as the educational touch-points to illustrate healthy money habits.
This raise will be used to carry out beta testing of the KUZAKASH APP and a consumer education campaign.
“Financial management skills are one of the most important factors that determine our lifestyle choices. Money is a continuous touchpoint throughout our lives and technology can help make this touchpoint meaningful by enabling people to create healthy interactions with money.”
Tynah Matembe, CEO of MoneyMatiX
“There is an African proverb that says it takes a village to raise a child, but I want to add to it that it takes a family and community to foster good financial habits. In this day and age of influencers, young people should not only be influenced by fashion or talent, but they should also be influenced by skills that will last for a lifetime like financial education. We are building a generation of financially savvy youngsters who will not only impact their communities but the economy at large. We can’t do this on our own! We need your help to build financially capable communities.”
Helene Rodger Co-Founder and COO of MoneyMatiX
To get the matched funding from RBS they need to get at least 100 unique backers for their APP. The campaign will run for 30 days and you can get involved to back KuzaKash here.
New fintech set to transform consumer investment experience
Scottish fintech company Visible Capital announced today it had secured £500,000 seed funding from TechStart Ventures and a group of eight private investors.
They also announced the appointment of Preston Rabl (WPP founder) on their board.
The 3 founders, Richard Braidwood, Ross Laurie and Christian Burgin will launch Visible Capital in early 2020. The solution will use Open Banking to assist clients of intermediaries provide their advisors with controlled access to their financial data in order to receive quicker, more informed advice on financial matters.
“Financial advisers and wealth managers still take information from their clients in paper form ”“ which means the advice they give and the strategies they suggest can only be as good as the immediate information they receive. Visible Capital’s technology allows the intermediary agreed and controlled access to real data about spending needs, wants, savings and borrowing, giving an instantly accurate picture of their clients’ ongoing finances ”“ making the onboarding process quicker and easier, and a lot more precise.”
Richard Braidwood, Co-Founder of Visible Capital
Earlier this year Visible Capital received approval from the Financial Conduct Authority.
Can diversity lead to better recruitment and retention?
Photo by Helena Lopes from Pexels
The challenges for growing Fintech’s in recruiting and retaining top talent in the face of larger firms with greater resources is well documented. This is particularly true in the main Scottish tech hubs of Glasgow and Edinburgh and with more large firms investing in new and expanded bases in the area this trend is likely to continue, so smaller, less well known firms with lower budgets really need to leave no stone unturned when it comes to seeking talent.
The main advantage smaller firms have is being nimble ”“ the ability to adapt hiring processes and to respond to market and candidate needs more quickly than their larger competitors. In this blog I provide some thoughts on diversity in the workplace and practical steps that can be taken.
I have attended numerous events and read countless articles on the benefits of improved diversity within workplaces. I hear the same things over and over as if employers still need to be convinced of the fact that more a more diverse workforce leads to greater creativity, innovation, staff retention and ultimately improved profitability.
It is my belief that employers do understand this. We need to move the dialogue on to the next step ”“ what should firms do about it? It’s a huge topic ranging across diversity in gender, age, disability, ethnicity, neurodiversity etc., and it can feel a bit overwhelming particularly for small to medium companies who may not have the resources that larger companies can lend to the topic.
If it seems daunting as a whole, break it down into manageable steps and prioritise these. Thinking about the stages where diversity plays a part, the biggest of these is probably recruitment as this is where the source of your diverse talent will come from. Breaking this down further how do you ensure you attract applications from the most diverse range of candidates then how do you ensure your selection process is fair to all?
Job Design
Consider what is actually essential for this hire and what can be taught once in post. What could be offered in terms of flexible working, part-time hours, agile working etc? What adjustments could be made for neuro diverse candidates?
Candidate Attraction
If your job design is done well this should automatically lead to a job advertisement which will attract a wider pool of applicants. Also check that the words used in your advertisement don’t accidentally appeal more to a particular gender, there are online tools to assist with this. Now consider how to actively target a wider pool of talent i.e. taking your roles directly to them rather than simply hoping they will find them e.g. where could the advert be placed?
Return to Work Candidates
There has been a rise in the number of returner programme in UK from 4 in 2014 to 70+ in 2019. These are for candidates who have a had a career break of one year or more and are looking to return to the workplace. Research shows that the biggest barrier for them is often loss of confidence so however appealing your job advertisement they still may not apply to you.
The Back in Business returner programme offers workshops to the candidates to help them regain that confidence and get them work ready. We will also consult with your firm to help design a “returnship” opportunity to ensure a manged return to work which more often than not will lead to a permanent hire for your business. Returner candidates tend to prove to be mature, established and loyal which is not always the case with regular hires.
Selection Process
Consider what steps you can take to anonymise applications e.g. removing name, age, gender etc., from CVs before they are passed to hiring managers. Unconscious bias training should be compulsory for all interviewers. Review any assessments being used for ”“ could they disadvantage any groups of candidates?
Back in Business is a diversity led recruitment service which offers returner programmes in Scotland and can also support with each of the other steps mentioned above.
Blog written by Morna Ronnie, Head of Programmes at Back in Business
Eika Makes Major Investment in EedenBull
Norwegian banking group Eika announced a large investment into Scotland based fintech EedenBull. Eika’s member banks will have access to EedenBull’s existing and future solutions and thereby increased competitiveness in the payments market..
EedenBull was founded in 2018 by a team of payments experts from around the world and expanded into Scotland with. the opening of their new office on September 2019. EedenBull already has a large number of customers in Europe and is now launching its new and innovative payments and spend management programme through more than 65 banks in the Nordic region for more than 9,000 businesses. The company is said to onboard a new customer every 4 minutes.
EedenBull’s solution gives companies simplicity and control for managing employees’ purchases made on their behalf. The solution includes payment cards, a web-based and mobile app management module.
“To us, it is important to create partnerships with players who possess specialist expertise in their areas, as the collaboration with EedenBull is an example of. This investment is strategically important to the Eika Group and our member banks for us to strengthen and secure our ability to compete effectively in the complex world of payments going forward.”
CEO Terje Gromholt of Eika Kredittbank
“The investment made by Eika and the partnership that follows is a testament to our ability to provide significant value to banks and their customers through combining our expertise and experience with payments with access to and utilization of new technologies. We are excited about the opportunity we have to not only embrace change in the way consumers and businesses think about payments, but continue to take a leading role in setting the agenda and driving change”
EedenBull CEO Nicki Bisgaard