New fintech collaboration to tackle cost of living crisis
In collaboration with Scottish fintech Inbest, NatWest Group has launched a benefits calculator for its customers. The tool allows people to see what benefits they could be entitled to and offers personalised signposting to local support points and organisations.
With the current cost-of-living crisis, ensuring that people access cash instead of debt is very important. In 2021, it is estimated that over 7 million people missed out on over £15bn of unclaimed benefits[1].
Manu Peleteiro, founder and CEO of Inbest explains that on average people using the tool have been able to access £5,000 unclaimed benefits which would go a long way in helping people to face inflation.
The initiative forms part of a much wider effort by NatWest to support its retail customers, including offering approximately 0.6m financial health checks, and proactively contacting 8m customers with support and information on the cost of living so far in 2022.
This collaboration was enabled by cluster management organisation, FinTech Scotland, which thrives to connect innovating fintech firms with established financial institutions.
The 3-month pilot of the calculator is being monitored closely before a wider roll-out to ensure customers are getting the best outcomes.
Peleteiro said:
“Benefits have powerful features to help people increase their income, reduce their expenses, and save for their future. Making sure that people are getting all the benefits they are eligible for is a great first step in a money management plan for the cost-of-living crisis. We’re looking forward to working with NatWest and helping their customers find and manage their benefits directly from the NatWest ecosystem.”
Kristen Bennie, Director of Innovation & Partnerships at NatWest Group, said:
“Making Inbest’s innovative benefits calculator available to our customers provides a critical avenue of support against the backdrop of increased cost of living pressures. Collaborating with Inbest on this pilot allows us to provide relevant, tailored and personalised insights, so we can provide support where and when our customers need it most.”
Nicola Anderson, CEO at fintech Scotland declared:
“The partnership between Inbest and NatWest is a powerful example of the purposeful impact that can be achieved through intentional collaboration between large organisations and fintech innovators. We’re proud to see this in action. NatWest has been deliberate in its focus to find new options and solutions for customers at a time of increased cost of living pressures. I know the capabilities at Inbest will make a positive difference for NatWest customers and look forward to the outcomes.”
[1] Charity Turn2Us
Scotcoin launches carbon offsetting service
The Scotcoin Project (CIC) just launched Scotcoin Carbon Offset which allows individuals and businesses to offset their carbon footprint and support the drive to net zero by providing a discount to those who pay with Scotcoin (SCOT), while also accepting payments in pounds sterling.
People can purchase a single tonne of carbon for £20 (10 tonnes would cover the average carbon consumption for a person each year). Businesses can get in touch with the Scotcoin Project to talk about their specific needs.
2022 saw the Scotcoin Project CIC achieved carbon neutral status by offsetting 100 tonnes of CO2 through investment in a project delivered by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Adaption Fund, which seeks to reduce the emissions of harmful greenhouse gases.
Scotcoin seeks to use crypto as a force for good, supporting a range of charitable and environmental projects that boost Scotland’s ambitions for a greener and fairer society.
Temple Melville, CEO of the Scotcoin Project CIC, said:
“We are using cryptocurrency in a unique way to help Scottish people and businesses make their contribution to the country achieving net zero. While offsetting is not the only answer, carbon emissions are an inevitable result of many of the things people do in day-to-day life and in the way businesses operate. It’s not possible to cut all of that out altogether, but it can at least be offset and we believe crypto can play an important role in making that happen.
“We have the flexibility to sell single tonne quantities, which means even individuals can offset what they produce in a year through activities like sending emails or drinking coffee if they want to proactively do more for the planet. The climate crisis remains the biggest challenge society faces and we hope that our carbon initiative, via Scotcoin Carbon Offset, will incentivise more people and businesses to do as much as they can to help us reach net zero.”
To find out more, please visit: www.scotcoincarbonoffset.com
Fintech docStribute secures listing as G-Cloud 13 supplier
Fintech docStribute, part of the FinTech Scotland community, just announced the signature of a Framework Agreement with the UK Government’s Crown Commercial Service (CCS) to be listed as a G-Cloud 13 supplier hence offering their services to public sector bodies later this autumn.
52,000 public sector and third sector organisations will have access to docStribute via the G-Cloud 13 digital marketplace. This will enable them to use docStribute’s Distributed Ledger Technology to benefit from a secure and sustainable digital solution for distributing highly regulated documents.
Christopher Ansara, CEO & co-founder of docStribute, comments:
“We are thrilled to have been selected as a service on the Digital Marketplace by the Crown Commercial Service. This will enable more public sector organisations to access docStribute’s services and it will be simple for non-profit organisations and public sector bodies to have access to the best product on the market. docStribute has always had productivity and sustainability at heart, and we hope to see our solution help not only reduce the use of paper, but also help organisations become more sustainable, while increasing efficiency.”
Not only does the solution provides better security it also help organisations achieve their Net Zero targets. Indeed, with docStribute they can reduce paper usage by 95% and cut cost by as much as 70%. docStribute uses the Hedera Distributed Network which is significantly more energy-efficient than alternative public networks.
docStribute recently signed a partnership with Salesforce to make its Document Distribution and Digital Signature solutions available to its 150,000+ customers helping Salesforce address three of its six sustainability priorities (emissions reduction, regulation and policy, and innovation).
Scottish fintech Biscuit Tin partners with Age Partnership
Scottish fintech firm Biscuit Tin, is accelerating its growth with a new partnership with the UK’s leading equity release advisory firm, Age Partnership.
The start-up was launched by serial entrepreneur Sheila Hogan in 2020 with the mission to help people organise their life admin. This partnership means that Age Partnership will provide their customers with preferential access to the personalised secure digital vault.
With Biscuit Tin, Age Partnership’s customers will be able to securely store important information, such as account details, documents, wishes and memories all in one place. The solution will guide people on how to plan and what to record within the vault. Biscuit Tin also helps families and next of kins access the relevant information according to the wishes of the individual.
In the last 12 months Biscuit Tin has gone from strength to strength with partnerships and collaborations agreed with other organisations including Scottish Building Society. Biscuit Tin has won several awards and this year the business has been shortlisted for Rising Star, The Scottish Financial Technology Awards; Rising Star and Start-up Business of the Year, Business Women Scotland Awards; Business of the Year, Association of Scottish Businesswomen Awards, and Start-up Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.
In February 2022, Sheila appeared in BBC’s Dragon’s Den, significantly raising the profile of the business. Biscuit Tin has been recognised as one of the top twenty Scottish Tech Ecosystem potential growth businesses. Earlier in the year founder Sheila travelled to Silicon Valley with StartUp Grind, a trip that brought together Scotland’s top start-ups and scale ups with more than 3,000 of the world’s best.
Commenting on the new Age Partnership collaboration, Steve Auckland, CEO of Age Partnership said:
“From this month we are providing all our completed equity release customers with access to their own digital secure vault, where they can take control of the documents, memories and personal information that are shared with their loved ones after they pass away. Equity release as a product allows people to take control of their later life finances, it is about enriching people’s lives when they need it most; so, this partnership with Biscuit Tin has perfect synergy.”
Sheila Hogan, founder and CEO of Biscuit Tin said:
“I am delighted to be working with Age Partnership to provide their valued customers with a special opportunity to get organised and plan in advance with Biscuit Tin. Creating a structured digital legacy of our lives means we can feel safe in the knowledge that we are making a difference by taking much of the administrative stress and stain away from our loved ones in the future. Biscuit Tin enables everyone to securely organise all of their life information and create a digital biography of their life to leave as a legacy to hand down the generations.
“I’m delighted with the progress we’re making as a business to achieve our vision of making Biscuit Tin a global household brand in digital legacy within the next five years, in world where planning for end of life is the norm, and where we all have virtual biscuit tins containing our digital legacies to hand down the generations and we make a difference by making life easier at every stage.”
Zumo joins World Economic Forum Crypto Sustainability Coalition
Scottish fintech Zumo, has become the latest member of the World Economic Forum’s Crypto Sustainability Coalition.
This coalition will explore how blockchain solutions can be use to contribute to meaningful progress toward positive climate action. Zumo’s contribution will be around developing the guiding principles and toolkits for companies, regulators and start-ups to leverage the potential of blockchain to reach energy goals.
Particular areas of focus include:
- assessment of crypto sector energy usage
- examination of the potential of web3 technology to facilitate positive climate action
- investigation of the usage of blockchain-based carbon credits.
Nick Jones, Zumo CEO, commented:
“It’s extremely encouraging to see the level of coordinated activity that has emerged in this area since we started our own crypto decarbonisation journey.”
“As we all know, there’s a lot left to do and a long way to go; what we’re seeing, however, is the strands of this work in the crypto ESG space really coming together ”“ and, perhaps, the beginnings of a shift in the narrative and the ability to see this technology not just as a problem, but as a potential force multiplier for good.”
“Making sure crypto and blockchain more generally develops in a way that caters to the needs of people and the planet is critical to Zumo and what we’re doing. We’re delighted to be invited to participate in this worthy World Economic Forum initiative, and to continue to build and collaborate with our fellow actors in the space.”
Find out more about the Crypto Sustainability Coalition at weforum.org
Learn more about Zumo’s own industry-leading work to date at zumo.tech
Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ – Government’s campaign to get encourage export
DIT (the Department for International Trade) is focusing on Scottish SME’s in the next phase of its nationwide export campaign.
DirectID, Emergency One and AAC Clyde Space are some of the companies that will feature in adverts on local radio, in print, and on billboards in train stations across the UK until the end of November.
The purpose behind this campaign is to encourage more businesses to export by promoting the free expert advice that SMEs can access through UK Government.
Minister for Exports Marcus Fysh said:
“Exporters create jobs, pay higher wages and help grow our economy, which is why we want the UK to be an export-led economy and reach a trillion pounds of exports a year by 2030.
“This campaign highlights some fantastic businesses punching above their weight, selling their brilliant products and services made here in the UK to the world. I hope they serve as inspiration to others looking to get onto the exporting ladder. As the campaign says: if you make it in the UK, why not sell it to the world?”
In 2019, there were around 12,400 Scottish companies exporting goods or services, and in 2021 Scotland accounted for 9% of all UK goods exports at £27.0 billion.
UK Government Minister for Scotland Malcolm Offord said:
“From fintech to fire engines to our world-famous food and drink sector, Scotland’s businesses have huge exporting potential.
“This campaign will highlight some fantastic Scottish companies that are already benefitting from selling their products around the globe. I hope it will inspire more businesses to follow suit, boosting the economy in Scotland and across the UK and supporting jobs.”
Minister for Trade, Scott Mann said:
“People around the world are lining up to buy British food, and this government is making sure that they can get it. From our fantastic seafood and meat to our world class produce, British food and drink is renowned for its high-quality and exceptional standards.
“This campaign ensures that all businesses making wonderful products have the tools they need to sell them around the world, bringing even more jobs and growth to a flourishing sector of our economy.”
Got Capital selects directID To Digitise SME Funding Process
Scottish fintech and global credit risk platform DirectID, have just announced a partnership with SME capital provider Got Capital.
From now on, SMEs applying for financing will be able to use the power of Open Banking within the application journey, letting agents at Got Capital quickly categorise and determine businesses’ true revenue without the need for PDF or paper bank statements. This new solution will allow for a much faster and accurate process, de-risking the financing whilst providing a better experience for SMEs.
Nicola Dunn, Business Development Manager, DirectID said:
“Small businesses are the backbone of any economy, they are continuously struggling to get access to affordable financing. Traditional lenders find it difficult to ensure fast and safe underwriting processes for SMEs. Existing and traditional credit reports lack sufficient credit history information such as bank account information or bank statement data. On the other hand, SMEs often cannot provide any collateral to mitigate this information gap and ensure financing.
This information gap can be filled by open banking data which is highly in demand in the market. DirectID are delighted to be the chosen open banking partner of Got Capital and we are very much and looking forward to working with Got Capital on a variety of use cases in the future.”
Mr. Alex Afek, Managing Director, Got Capital Officer said:
“We are very excited to get on board the DirectID platform. Got Capital is funding businesses across the UK and we require a very good e-banking coverage. It simplifies the process for our applicants and customers and reduces the time to funding decisioning. Got Capital’s Royalties based investment is a timely instrument and”¯is used by many different types of businesses when they need cash at hand yesterday.”
Hiring strategies for fintechs
Season 2, episode 6
Listen to the full episode here.
Fintech firms around the world are becoming more and more vocal about how difficult they find it to hire new colleagues. Whether it is the skills gap or the increase in salary levels, start-ups and scales-ups are not always best equipped to compete in a global and highly competitive market.
At the same time, many fintechs from around the world have and are still choosing Scotland to expand, finding it easier and sometime cheaper to recruit. So, is Scotland still attractive from a job market perspective?
In this podcast episode we’ll discuss how Scotland is positioned now the job market is really global in a post-pandemic world. We’ll also try to understand how Scotland is getting ready to face the growing tech talent demand. Finally, we’ll discuss strategies fintech companies can put in place to become attractive and retain talent.
Guests:
Pardeep Cassells – Head of Securities and Claims Products at Access Fintech
Justin Black – Business Director at Hays Technology Scotland
Killian McAlesse – Marketing Director at CodeClan
Marina Brizar – UK & Europe Director at Talent Beyond Boundaries
FinTech focus groups set up to support FinTech Scotland Roadmap
A new FinTech event series focused on collaboration and stakeholder engagement will play an important role in supporting the development and delivery of the recently published FinTech Scotland Research and Innovation Roadmap.
FinTech is driving change in the financial services industry, one of the most important parts of our economy. It presents a significant disruptive force and will shape the future of the digital economy.
The financial services industry contributes £132 billion to the UK economy each year and research and innovation will play a fundamental role in shaping the future of finance. FinTech is already a rising force in Scotland, with over 200 fintech businesses, driving growing levels of investment and creating exciting and interesting high value jobs.
Embracing this growing potential, the R&I Roadmap sets out the foundations to do more. The overarching aims of the Roadmap are the creation of over 20,000 new FinTech related jobs and an increase in economic value (GVA) from £598 million to more than £2 billion – over the next 10 years.
To support the Roadmap, the FinTech Research and Innovation Event Series 2022-23 has been launched, created by FinTech-Tables, supported by FinTech Scotland and global law firm Pinsent Masons.
The events will provide a platform for discussion that will continue to support an industry-led approach to research, innovation and impact across the four key pillars of the Roadmap; financial regulation, payments & transactions, climate finance, and open finance data. The series will see key contributors meeting to discuss actions outlined against each theme in a series of industry roundtables and panel discussions.
The event series is already attracting a lot of support, with speakers confirmed from a number of organisations for the opening event in September this year, including Pinsent Masons, Autorek and the University of Strathclyde, where a panel of experts will convene to consider role of technology and data in financial regulation.
Commenting, Fintech Scotland Chief Executive Nicola Anderson said,
“This Roadmap event series continues to show the demand and ambition across Scotland to play a leading role in the shaping the future of fintech innovation, and enable the future of finance that will serve the needs of citizens and businesses as we continue to see the digital economy grow and emerge. Fintech innovation in Scotland is already demonstrating a future that can drive better outcomes for us all. By building more collaboration and embracing our strengths, in innovation, finance, and technology, we will continue to play a leading role in advancing finance across the world. ”
Yvonne Dunn, Partner leading the Financial services technology practice at Pinsent Masons said
“As Fintech continues to develop and advance it is disrupting global financial markets, but much needs to be done for it to affect genuine change. Put simply, innovation in technology combined with adapting attitudes and behaviours across society will be a catalyst to drive meaningful change. As we look across the international landscape, Scotland will play a vital role in advancing Fintech given its financial heritage, strength of its universities and an ingrained culture of entrepreneurialism. TheFinTech Scotland cluster is a demonstration of what can happen through collective action. This roadmap event series gives us a forum to move in the right direction and genuinely propel Fintech into a new era of innovation.”
Ian Davey, Founder of Fintech-Tables said
“FinTech in Scotland is a movement and what makes this sector unique is the willingness and desire of the entire ecosystem to come together and work for the greater good of the cluster and people in Scotland as a whole. This first of its kind event series will provide a platform for engagement around the FinTech Scotland Research & Innovation Roadmap and an opportunity for the industry to take action as a group to help shape the future of Fintech in Scotland through collaboration, innovation and inclusion”
AutoRek to hire a further 30 positions
Scottish fintech Autorek, is growing its team to cope with an unprecedented level of demand for it financial control and regulatory reporting solutions. The company has already recruited 40 people in 2022 and is looking at filling 30 more positions across the U.K.
This rise in demand can be attributed to a need for more integrity and accountability across the financial services sector, leading to increased regulation, especially across the payments and asset management industries. The FCA’s new Consumer Duty, which was introduced on 27th July, is the most recent example of this market shift.
AutoRek’s CEO, Gordon McHarg comments:
“We currently have 140 employees, and we’re projecting this number to rise to 170 by the end of the year to keep up with the demand from clients and prospects. We’re extremely proud that the average tenure of employees is currently four years – more than double the sector norm for most fintechs, with almost 40% of these employees playing a huge part in the growth journey with four years or more as part of the AutoRek team.”
He continued,
“The demand for greater automation is at the centre of our need to continue hiring. Within the payments, asset management and insurance sectors, the increasingly complex regulatory landscape is forcing firms to automate to keep pace with their competitors and their own customers’ expectations. Therefore, we have a particular focus on hiring SMEs in each of our sectors, with a number of positions available in insurance. As we look to expand our services internationally and focus on growing software engineering, professional services and sales, we expect this growth to continue as the global business world embraces the benefits of automation.”