Clearwater to Drive Growth for Athora Holding Ltd.
Scottish fintech Clearwater Analytics just announced that Athora Holding Ltd., a leading insurance and reinsurance group, had selected them to support their growth strategy, streamline the operating model and provide a consolidated view of accounting, regulatory, and operational reporting across all entities.
Shamira Mohammed, Group Chief Accounting Officer, Athora said:
“Athora is a fast growing, acquisitive insurer and reinsurer. We wanted a solution that could help us on-board acquisitions and portfolios quickly, manage increasing regulatory requirements, and enable a quick view of our investment portfolio across multiple markets. Clearwater’s SaaS solution met our needs perfectly. Clearwater brings industry best practices through their single instance platform and an impressive operations team that understand the needs of the insurance market. Clearwater has the technology, processes, and innovative thinking to support our vision for the future.”
Gayatri Raman, President, Europe and Asia, Clearwater Analytics said:
“We are seeing significant consolidation across the insurance and investment management industries. With that comes the need to be able to quickly aggregate data from multiple sources and then turn that data into information that can be used to drive decision making. Clearwater brings best-in-class technology and managed services to Athora so they can fully focus their efforts on growth. We are delighted to partner with Athora.”
Lloyds Banking Group and FinTech Scotland Announce New Innovation Programme
Lloyds Banking Group has announced 3 new strategic innovation challenges as it opens its cohort 2 of its Launch Innovation Programme. Working in collaboration with FinTech Scotland the group is inviting fintech’s from all around the world to take part.
This follows the success of the first Programme that saw 12 fintech firms selected, from Scotland and Europe. This year the group is hoping for many more continuing to show the continued commitment of Lloyds Banking Group to partner with fintech businesses.
The bank is seeking fintech partners to help them achieve their sustainability goals, improve customers’ financial lives and support their colleagues in a post-Covid pandemic world.
Successful fintech applicants will have 10 weeks to refine and test their innovative solutions, working in collaboration with colleagues across the bank. This will include direct access to challenge sponsors and mentors in the bank, as well as business development support, clinics and external business masterclasses.
The Launch Innovation Programme is an initiative that aims to create collaboration opportunities between the banking group and fintech SMEs to enable faster innovation and deliver for customers.
Interested firms can learn more and apply by visiting fintech.union-dev2.net/launch before the 1st of April. Lloyds Banking Group are committed to enabling greater diversity and will actively target, welcome and support applications from women and businesses founded by people of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic heritage
Commenting on the launch, Nicola Anderson, CEO at FinTech Scotland said:
“Lloyds Banking Group Launch Innovation Programme is a perfect example of how collaboration can deliver innovation and better outcomes for all. Amongst other things I was delighted to see three innovation themes this year which demonstrate how fintech can help with financial matters, well-being and sustainability. I’m looking forward to reading the applications.”
David McLeay, Innovation Product Owner for Insurance & Wealth Transformation at Lloyds Banking Group added:
“We are super excited to open our Launch 2022 programme as it’s a key part of our strategy to improve collaboration with fintechs and harness the power of Innovation. The 12 companies from the initial 2021 cohort delivered amazing ideas and experiments for our colleagues and customers. This year we are looking to build on that with additional investment and scale to identify up to 24 partner companies across a broader range of business challenges.”
White-Box code generator launched by Pace
In order to provide a high level of sensitive data protection and application attack resistance, the US-born fintech located in Scotland Pace Anti-Piracy, launched its White-Box Works, a next-generation EMVCo-evaluated White-Box code generator.
This level of in-house control also promises to increase operational efficiency for Banks, payment service providers (PSPs), schemes, and other financial institutions, since they can develop their application in accordance with their internal schedules. They can also use, replace and update their deployed encryption keys and algorithms at will, with no need to re-engage PACE Anti-Piracy, or any other third-party vendor, to do so.
White-Box Works offers a great way to avoid sophisticated attacks such as reverse engineering, fault injection, and advanced statistical analysis.
Allen Cronce, CEO of PACE Anti-Piracy, Inc said:
“Statistical Analysis attacks are the bane of all white-box encryption protection solutions. We are very proud to be equipping the financial services industry with a solution capable of addressing these and other vulnerabilities. White-Box Works represents a significant step forward in the encryption protection space, and will give banks, PSPs, schemes, and other financial sector users greater confidence in the security of their sensitive data. We’re also delighted to accompany the launch with news of White-Box Works’ EMVCo SBMP evaluation certificate and are grateful to Riscure’s talented penetration testers. The entire Riscure team has been a pleasure to work with throughout the rigorous EMVCo evaluation process.”
Being a woman entrepreneur in the fintech industry
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2022, we met with Lynne Darcey Quigley, founder and CEO at Scottish fintech Know-it.
Lynne, when did you decide to become an entrepreneur and why?
From a young age I knew I wanted to run my own business.
I’ve always been hardworking and was a skilled credit management consultant so understood that I could build something great by helping businesses in need of recovering unpaid invoices and increasing their cashflow.
I founded Darcey Quigley & Co in 2007 offering commercial debt recovery and sales ledger management that has grown to be one of the UK’s leading commercial debt recovery specialists.
What led you to launch Know-it?
Working in the credit industry for over 25 years and running one of the UK’s leading commercial debt recovery specialists for 15 years I seen businesses make the same credit management mistakes time and time again.
The businesses I help day to day could avoid the need to use a debt recovery partner if they had implemented a robust credit control process. However, there’s a perceived barrier to this, mainly time and cost.
But the problem of late payments is massive, SMEs in the UK are currently chasing £61 billion in late payments, an increase of 22% since 2020!
Realising the size of the issue with late payments I founded Know-it to give business owners a complete automated end-to-end credit management process that is cost effective. Our automation will save businesses valuable time and help them get paid quicker and boost their cashflow.
How will Know-it help businesses avoid problems associated with late payments and improve their cashflow?”
Know-it provides businesses with all the tools and intelligence needed for a watertight credit control process all in one easy to use platform. Know-it brings together the 3 key elements of the credit control process, we like to call the 3 C’s, Check- it, Chase-it, Collect-it.
Check-it gives businesses the facility to credit check and automatically monitor companies from across the UK with real-time data from independent and reliable sources in just one click. This intelligence will allow businesses to make more informed credit decisions and mitigate credit risk.
Chase-it automatically chases unpaid invoices when they’re due through email, letter and SMS. Our smart integration with leading accountancy packages means Chase-it knows which invoices are due when and how much is owed.
Collect-it offers a much needed safety net by providing the services of leading commercial debt recovery specialists Darcey Quigley & Co to Know-it users with problematic late payers.
What is it like to be a woman entrepreneur in the fintech industry?
It’s been fantastic so far! The Scottish fintech community is so vibrant I feel women are very well represented.
I feel very supported in the Scottish fintech space. Schemes such as AccelerateHER and Business Women Scotland are helping female entrepreneurs thrive.
Do you feel like investors, potential clients or other stakeholders approach female entrepreneurs differently?
No, it’s never been something I’ve experienced during my fintech journey so far, certainly not with potential clients, partners or other stakeholders.
We’re just getting started with our big push for investment but so far I haven’t experienced any feelings of being treated differently so far.
According to you, what should be done to ensure more gender diversity in tech?
I believe there’s a lack of awareness of the variety of careers available to women within the IT industry.
It’s not just about coding. There are so many other exciting jobs in the tech sector such as Project Management, Business Analysis, Solutions Architects, as well as a myriad of roles in supporting business functions. We are in tech and big advocates for our industry, so we need to educate girls and women to the variety of careers now available to them.
What does the future look like for Know-it? Any exciting developments you can share with us?
Having launched our beta late last year we have aggressive growth plans for 2022.
We’re actively seeking investment now to help us fund these plans.
Our goal is to make Know-it the best credit management platform possible so we’re taking feedback from our users onboard and are always developing our product to meet the needs of our users.
FinTech Innovation Roadmap Aims to Drive a Threefold Increase in Economic Growth and Job Creation
FinTech Scotland has published a ground-breaking Research and Innovation (R&I) Roadmap with the objective of boosting economic recovery, driving growth and creating jobs over the next ten years.
Over the ten-year period, the ambition will be to deliver in Scotland an additional 20,000 plus fintech related jobs as well as produce an increase in economic gross value add (GVA) through fintech innovation from £0.5bn GVA today to £2.1bn GVA by 2031.
The industry led Fintech R&I Roadmap, the first of its kind in the UK, has been pulled together by the cluster body FinTech Scotland in collaboration with fintech entrepreneurs, the financial services sector, academia, regulators, Government bodies and consumer groups.
The cross industry led collaboration has resulted in four key strategic innovation themes which provide the foundation for the Roadmap, these are open finance data, climate finance, financial regulation and payments and transactions.
The Roadmap is published on the anniversary of the HM Treasury commissioned Review of Fintech led by Ron Kalifa OBE which set out a number of recommendations, including the opportunity for research and innovation to accelerate the development of cluster excellence.
The full Fintech Research and Innovation Roadmap is available here.
Nicola Anderson, Chief Executive, who co-authored the Roadmap with Executive Chairman Stephen Ingledew, said,
“The R&I Roadmap demonstrates how collaborative fintech innovation can drive positive economic and social outcomes. I would like to thank industry, academia and all participants for their enthusiastic engagement and contributions in producing this action orientated Roadmap. As a dynamic tool, work is already underway with partners across the FinTech Scotland cluster and the UK”.
Ron Kalifa OBE, said
“This Roadmap aligns with the recommendations I set out in the Review of UK Fintech and supports our national ambition to encourage growth by creating the right conditions for innovation. I believe the Roadmap can act as a stimulus for purposeful UK wide fintech collaboration and I am excited to see the positive impact of this work.”
John Glen, Economic Secretary to the HM Treasury and City Minister said
“Our fintech sector is a global success story, with record levels of investment over the last year. The Government is committed to supporting UK fintech as it goes from strength to strength, including by ensuring we draw on the huge amounts of knowledge and expertise across all of the UK. So, it is great to see the initiative taken by FinTech Scotland in developing this new industry-led tool, and I look forward to seeing how the Roadmap develops”
Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said
“Scotland is one of the best places in Europe to start and grow a fintech firm and I am delighted to see the industry focusing on research and innovation as we move forward with Scotland’s economic, social and environmental transformation. This Roadmap sets ambitious targets for sectoral growth and job creation, building on the wealth of talent and innovation that exists across the wider tech ecosystem in Scotland.”
Catherine McGuinness, Policy Chair at City of London Corporation said
“Nurturing research and innovation are integral to the success of the UK as a global financial hub. FinTech Scotland’s R&I Roadmap highlights the undercurrent of support for the ecosystem and the transformative power that cultivating this sector can have across society. The dynamism of the Roadmap will act as a pioneer and The City of London Corporation welcomes the progress made and we look forward to seeing Scotland yield the benefits of these to drive growth.”
Janine Hirt, Chief Executive of Innovate Finance commented on the climate finance theme
“We will need to innovate and evolve business models to finance and enable a greener future. We look forward to further collaboration with FinTech Scotland as this R&I Roadmap contributes to industry working with government and regulators to maintain the UK position as a global leader of fintech innovation and green finance.”
Peter Mathieson, Principal and Vice Chancellor of University of Edinburgh commented
“As one of the founding members of FinTech Scotland, the University is committed to supporting Scotland and the UK achieve the ambition to be a global fintech leader. We have academic excellence across many disciplines and this Roadmap invites us to harness data-driven innovation and build purposeful collaboration across sectors to meet the challenges of Open Finance, financial inclusion and the transition to Net-Zero.”
Adrian Gillespie, Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise said,
“The FinTech R&I Roadmap sets out an ambitious path establishing Scotland as a global digital economy leader. It creates the foundations for us to explore transformational opportunities, building on the wealth of talent and innovation that exists across the wider tech ecosystem.”
Kevin Colins, the interim Chief Executive of the Smart Data Foundry, who sponsored the development of the Roadmap said
“Traditionally, financial services has seen universities as a source of graduate talent, rather than supporting their Research & Innovation needs. I’m proud to partner with Fintech Scotland to help deliver these recommendations and work with universities to meet the increasing demands from the sector.”
The full Fintech Research and Innovation Roadmap is available here.
New Chief Product and Technology Officer for xDesign
Edinburgh-based xDesign has appointed Jeff Watkins as its first chief product and technology officer.
Jeff will lead and help to evolve the company’s technology and engineering capabilities, ensuring closer integration with the company’s products.
Jeff has got a background in financial services, healthcare and retail as a principal architect. Most recently, he was chief for technology at AND Digital.
Jeff’s appointment follows a record year of growth for the software engineering organisation which has also seen its team quadruple to over 200 since opening a new office in Leeds last July.
Euan Andrews, CEO of xDesign, said:
“Jeff’s appointment marks the next phase of xDesign’s evolution as we continue to scale at pace. Our people remain a key focus and we invest in the team’s learning, development and wellbeing as a priority. Jeff brings a wealth of experience that will provide valuable support to our product and engineering teams as we work to achieve ambitious growth plans. It’s clear that technology is in Jeff’s DNA and he will be applying his vast knowledge across our teams, but he also has the enviable capability to inspire people and to help achieve commercial growth. With these attributes, he will be a vital addition to our team.”
Jeff Watkins, chief product and technology officer at xDesign added:
“Joining xDesign was a no brainer – its people-focused approach was a huge draw, as well as its commitment to uniting product, design and technology. I am passionate about technology being a great leveller that benefits the human experience. We have seen how the pandemic has driven more people to use technology and apps, and it is the responsibility of organisations like xDesign to create a compelling and engaging experience for users. The potential for
xDesign to lead in this area is huge and being part of that journey is something I can’t wait to get my teeth into.”
xDesign works with clients including FanDuel, Heineken, NHS 24 and MoneySuperMarket. More information on the services xDesign provides to its clients is available here: https://www.xdesign.com/our-work/
DirectID grows commercial team
Scottish fintech, DirectID, just announced seven new hires. The fintech is already present in many markets and with those hires, they are looking to further this expansion. This announcement comes after the firm announced the completion of a $3M bridge funding round led by Hong Kong based venture capital firm QBN Capital.
Here are some of the new joiners:
Nicholas Tuttelberg – Director of Business Development.
Specialist of credit risk and customer decision management solutions in the Financial, Retail, and Telecommunications industry. Nicholas’ last role was at Experian and also worked at TransUnion, Reunert Group, Nedbank, and Standard Bank.
Based in Cape Town, South Africa, he will drive the business growth for Africa.
Damiano Cracolici – Director of Business Development.
Damiano is an expert in deploying and enhancing data-driven business processes and solutions across the credit and risk lifecycle. He previously held roles at TransUnion, FICO, and Experian. Cracolici is based in the UK and will take point on DirectID’s insurance sector clients.
Betting on future talents
DirectID also hired four sales graduates to their commercial outfit through the IT Technical Sales apprenticeship training programme at Pareto Law. Through Pareto, the team of Business Development Executives will continue to build upon their learning and development, while gaining invaluable hands-on experience in their employment at the rapidly growing fintech.
The graduate team will be led by Lee Sansom who also joins the business from Experian, bringing with him over 10 years of experience in business development with B2B SaaS providers.
Clare McCaffery, Chief Commercial Officer at DirectID, said:
I am delighted to be joined by such a prestigious group of colleagues. Having worked with both Nick and Damiano previously I know our growing client base will benefit from their vast experience and consultative approach. It is equally an honour to enable the talented BDE team as they start their careers after gaining exceptional academic qualifications. I am sure that under the guidance of Lee’s hands on leadership approach they will help us to expand DirectID across many markets over the next 12 months.
New partnerships to open finance for good
On the day it announces its new name, Smart Data Foundry, formerly the Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence, also shares the news it has joined forces with Equifax, Sage Group, Moneyhub and FreeAgent to support its mission to open finance for good.
The Smart Data Foundry was born our of a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh The Financial Data and Technology Association (FDATA) and FinTech Scotland.
The freshly rebranded company just completed a project with NatWest Group, The bank de-identified data from over a million householders to study the impact of the pandemic on household finances. All of the data was de-identified and analysed by accredited researchers in the security of the Smart Data Foundry Safe Haven, operated by the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC) at the University of Edinburgh, a controlled and secure service environment for undertaking data research.
Insights from the NatWest data were shared with the UK Government at the start of 2021 and continue to be updated.
The Smart Data Foundry will now focus on understanding the impact of the pandemic on SMEs. Working with Scottish fintech FreeAgent, Equifax and with Sage, they will research the causes and impact of late and slow payments to small and medium sized businesses. The insights will be shared and continually updated with the UK Government as financial behaviour adapts to the pandemic environment.
Commenting on the announcement, Smart Data Foundry’s Chair, Dame Julia said:
“We have started a movement within the financial services sector which is gaining momentum at pace. Driven by our purpose to improve people’s lives, our new name, Smart Data Foundry, better reflects the challenges we face.
“Today’s announcement charts the significant progress Smart Data Foundry has made to date in securing partnerships with these significant organisations which will enable us to unlock the power of financial data that, up until now, was not available for public purpose or common good.
“It is important not to underestimate the work that has gone into getting to this stage which includes data governance agreements to protect privacy. This headway, and the success of the NatWest Group partnership, paves the way for many other partnerships as we strive to improve the lives of ordinary people and support the resilience of the SME sector.”
Dame Julia concludes:
“The science community has shown how important health data was to manage the pandemic. Our aim is to do the same for the economy by providing financial data. However, our collaboration will reach beyond Open Finance as we look at other significant challenges such as climate data and the transition to net-zero, addressing the Poverty Premium and supporting the intersection of finance and health.”
Simon McNamara, Group Chief Administrative Officer at NatWest said:
“The pandemic continues to be challenging for many, and the impact is unique for each customer, household and business. By sharing data with Smart Data Foundry, organisations can collaborate to create better insights for the good of our communities so that we can better support their recovery. We have a crucial role, guided by our purpose, to support our customers and communities to get back on their feet and thrive”
Roan Lavery, CEO and founder of FreeAgent said:
“Sticking up for microbusinesses is really important to us and so we’re proud that the insights from the data will help to shape public policy to support SMEs, sole traders and contractors. SMEs account for 50% of the UK’s output. Part of the success of this project is down to the very supportive data community here in Edinburgh and in other parts of Scotland.”
NCC Group partners with FinTech Scotland to further enhance cyber resilience across the sector
Global cyber security and risk mitigation expert, NCC Group, has secured a new strategic partnership to offer its services to FinTech Scotland’s cluster of almost 200 fintech businesses with the aim of strengthening security postures and boosting resilience.
Cyber threats are a growing concern for enterprises and citizens alike. The partnership directly addresses this concern by enabling FinTech Scotland to provide more cyber security expertise and knowledge to the Scottish fintech community.
Under the partnership, companies involved in the FinTech Scotland cluster will have access to a broad range of cyber security services and expert advice, giving them the confidence to balance increased resilience and ongoing innovation to achieve a secure competitive advantage.
The partnership will also see NCC Group collaborate with FinTech Scotland on marketing, events and research to help inform businesses of the importance and benefits of cyber security across the fintech ecosystem.
Michael Upton, UK Sales Manager at NCC Group, said:
“We have a strong existing presence with financial organisations across the globe, including many of Fintech Scotland’s existing strategic partners. These partnerships, combined with our long-standing presence in Edinburgh, our insight in the fintech space throughout the UK and Europe, and our continued investment in research mean that this strategic relationship will add value for both NCC Group and Fintech Scotland.
With that in mind, we’re excited to help FinTech Scotland’s members to enable business growth on a safe and resilient footing, to clearly demonstrate how they will protect themselves and their customers from cyber threats and comply with global governance frameworks to support their growth.”
Nicola Anderson, CEO at FinTech Scotland, said:
“Strategic partnerships with global organisations that have a strong base here in Scotland are essential to offering our community a broad range of support options to achieve growth, so we are delighted to welcome NCC Group to the cluster. As an experienced cyber security partner with considerable heritage and insight, NCC Group can support fintech development and help us continue to nurture Scotland’s high growth FinTech assets.”
TranSwap receives EMI authorisation in the UK
TranSwap, a Singaporean fintech with a growing presence in Scotland just announced it had received authorisation from the FCA to conduct payment activities as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) in the UK.
This will allow the fintech firm to offer its comprehensive suite of services, including global payments and collections, borderless digital wallets, cards & spend management, platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).
The company had recently opened its Global R&D Center in Edinburgh and is now well positioned to provide cutting edge fintech services for its customers globally.
TranSwap can facilitate borderless trade and investment activities through technology allowing companies from Asia, UK and Europe to expand in those markets the same way local firms would.
Scottish Government Trade Minister Ivan McKee said:
“This is a significant development for TranSwap and a further indication of the strength and level of innovation in Scotland’s globally competitive fintech sector.
“By receiving EMI authorisation, TranSwap will be in a position to support Scottish companies active in south east Asia and those looking to expand into this important market.”
Commenting on the significant milestone, Benjamin Wong, Chief Executive Officer of TranSwap said,
“We are excited to receive the EMI authorisation in the UK to scale our international business banking services for our existing customers and partners in Asia and potential customers in the UK. We very much looking forward to becoming the global business banking partner for businesses that are currently trading between Asia, UK and Europe.”
Appreciating TranSwap’s agile practices since its inception, Nicola Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of Fintech Scotland said,
“The fintech sector is adept at modifying business models and adapting in order to achieve better products and services. TranSwap brings new experiences to the FinTech Scotland community and consistently demonstrates its abilities across different international markets. We’re delighted to work with them and look forward to their successes.”